1960 United States Senate election in South Carolina

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1960 Democratic Senate primary in South Carolina
Flag of South Carolina.svg
  1956 (special) June 4, 1960 1966  
  StromThurmond.png 3x4.svg
Nominee Strom Thurmond Robert B. Herbert
Party Democratic Democratic
Popular vote273,79532,136
Percentage89.50%10.50%

U.S. senator before election

Strom Thurmond
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Strom Thurmond
Democratic

The 1960 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 8, 1960, to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Popular incumbent Senator Strom Thurmond easily won the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election.

Contents

This was Thurmond's last Senate race in which he ran as a Democrat; in 1964 he switched parties to Republican to oppose the Democrats' support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and continued to serve until he left office in 2003 and was succeeded by Lindsey Graham (R). As of 2025, this is the last time that Democrats won South Carolina's Class 2 Senate seat.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Campaign

Herbert argued that Thurmond's means of opposing the civil rights legislation in the 1950s was unconstructive and instead if he were in the Senate he would express to the country how the blacks were benefited by white rule.[ citation needed ] Herbert's campaign was little more than token opposition as Thurmond racked up a huge victory and won another term because he did not have an opponent in the general election.

Results

South Carolina U.S. Senate primary election, 1960
PartyCandidateVotes%
Democratic Strom Thurmond (incumbent) 273,795 89.50%
Democratic Robert Beverley Herbert32,13610.50%
Total votes305,931 100.00%

Election results

South Carolina U.S. Senate Election, 1960
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Democratic Strom Thurmond (incumbent) 330,167 99.97% 0.0%
Write-in 1020.03%0.0%
Total votes330,269 100.0%
Majority 330,065100.0%0.0%
Turnout 330,26955.4%+23.2%
Democratic hold

See also

References