Alabama gubernatorial election, 1962

Alabama gubernatorial election, 1962
	County results
Governor before election; John Malcolm Patterson ; Democratic	Elected Governor ; George Wallace ; Democratic

Last updated March 07, 2019

The 1962 Alabama gubernatorial election took place on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Democrat John Malcolm Patterson was term limited and could not seek a second consecutive term.

John Malcolm Patterson is an American politician who served one term as the 44th Governor of the U.S. state of Alabama from 1959 to 1963. A staunch segregationist, he was his state's attorney general from 1955 to 1959. His turbulent tenure as governor was roiled by numerous civil rights protests and a long-running extramarital affair with Tina Sawyer, a mother-of-two who would eventually become his third wife.

Democratic Party nomination

At this time Alabama was de facto one-party state. Every Democratic Party nominee felt safe. The real contest for governor took place during this party's primaries.

Alabama is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama is the 30th largest by area and the 24th-most populous of the U.S. states. With a total of 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of inland waterways, Alabama has among the most of any state.

Incumbent Governor John M. Patterson was barred from seeking a second consecutive term.

Candidates

Albert Boutwell, Lieutenant Governor
Bull Connor, Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner
Jim Folsom, former Governor
Ryan DeGraffenried, Sr., State Representative
MacDonald Gallion, Attorney General
J. Bruce Henderson
Wayne Jennings
George Wallace, former Circuit Judge and former State Representative

Albert Burton Boutwell was the 19th Lieutenant Governor of Alabama. A Democrat, Boutwell served Governor John Malcolm Patterson of the same political party, from 1959-1963.

Theophilus Eugene Connor, known as Bull Connor, was an American politician who served as an elected Commissioner of Public Safety for the city of Birmingham, Alabama, for more than two decades. He strongly opposed activities of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Under the city commission government, Connor had responsibility for administrative oversight of the Birmingham Fire Department and the Birmingham Police Department, which also had their own chiefs.

Birmingham is a city located in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. With an estimated 2017 population of 210,710, it is the most populous city in Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous and fifth largest county. As of 2017, the Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 1,149,807, making it the most populous in Alabama and 49th-most populous in the United States. Birmingham serves as an important regional hub and is associated with the Deep South, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions of the nation.

Among three main contenders – Folsom, DeGraffenried and Wallace – the former two were considered to be progressive or moderate. Folsom, who served as Governor from 1947 to 1951 and again from 1955 to 1959, was one of the first Southern chief executives who spoke out in favor of desegregation and voting rights for an African Americans, which led to him frequently clashing with the Legislature on a number of issues.^[1]^[2] DeGraffenried also ran as a moderate, especially on the race issues.^[3]

Wallace, who lost a close primary to Patterson in 1958, ran that year as a Folsom-style moderate (he was indeed a close Folsom ally), and even received the official NAACP endorsement, while Patterson ran as a strong segregationist, accepting the official Ku Klux Klan endorsement.^[4]

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as a bi-racial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington and Moorfield Storey.

Ku Klux Klan American white supremacy group

The Ku Klux Klan, commonly called the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist hate group. The Klan has existed in three distinct eras at different points in time during the history of the United States. Each has advocated extremist reactionary positions such as white supremacy, white nationalism, anti-immigration and—especially in later iterations—Nordicism and anti-Catholicism. Historically, the KKK used terrorism—both physical assault and murder—against groups or individuals whom they opposed. All three movements have called for the "purification" of American society and all are considered right-wing extremist organizations. In each era, membership was secret and estimates of the total were highly exaggerated by both friends and enemies.

After he lost in 1958, Wallace adopted a strong segregationist stance as well in order to secure votes.^[5]

Results

In the primary, held on June 3, Wallace finished first but failed to win a majority. Folsom and DeGraffenried split the moderate vote, and DeGraffenried, as the second-place finisher, faced Wallace in the runoff. Many believed that a controversial TV appearance, in which Folsom appeared to be seriously drunk, cost him the election.

Democratic primary results^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	George Wallace	207,062	32.49
	Democratic	Ryan DeGraffenried, Sr.	160,704	25.22
	Democratic	Jim Folsom	159,640	25.05
	Democratic	MacDonald Gallion	80,374	12.61
	Democratic	Bull Connor	23,019	3.61
	Democratic	J. Bruce Henderson	3,666	0.58
	Democratic	Wayne Jennings	1,946	0.31
	Democratic	Albert Boutwell	862	0.14
Total votes			637,273	100

Wallace defeated DeGraffenried in the runoff, held on June 24.^[6]

Democratic runoff results
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	George Wallace	340,730	55.87
	Democratic	Ryan DeGraffenried, Sr.	269,122	44.13
Total votes			609,852	100

Other nominations

The Republican Party did not field a candidate.

Wallace's sole rival was Frank P. Walls, an independent who was later an Alabama Conservative Party congressional candidate.

General election

As expected, Wallace won in a landslide:^[7]

George Wallace (D) – 303,987 (96.27%)
Frank P. Walls (I) – 11,789 (3.73%)

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References

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[1] ttp://www.archives.state.al.us/govs_list/g_folsom.html

[2] ttp://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1423

[ourcampaigns.com-3] 1 2 http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=42328

[4] ttps://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wallace/filmmore/transcript/index.html

[5] ttp://www.neh.gov/news/humanities/2000-03/wallace.html

[6] ttp://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=80042

[7] ttp://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=79513