United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1962

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United States Senate election in Pennsylvania, 1962
Flag of Pennsylvania.svg
  1956 November 6, 1962 1968  

  JosephSClark.jpg James E. Van Zandt (Pennsylvania Congressman).jpg
Nominee Joseph S. Clark, Jr. James E. Van Zandt
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote2,238,383 2,134,649
Percentage51.1% 48.7%

Pennsylvania Senatorial Election Results by County, 1962.svg

County results

U.S. Senator before election

Joseph S. Clark, Jr.
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Joseph S. Clark, Jr.
Democratic

The 1962 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 6, 1962. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Joseph S. Clark, Jr. successfully sought re-election to another term, defeating Republican nominee James E. Van Zandt. A Democratic U.S. Senator would not be re-elected in Pennsylvania again until 2012.

James E. Van Zandt politician and United States Navy officer

James Edward Van Zandt was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.

Contents

Major candidates

Democratic

Republican

Campaign

The 1962 Senate race took place alongside a gubernatorial race that garnered most of the media's attention. Van Zandt criticized Clark for being an idealistic liberal and stressed an anti-communist platform. He also attacked Clark for Clark's support of the Kennedy administration's foreign policy towards both China and Cuba. In return, Clark portrayed Van Zandt as a proponent of McCarthyism who would be "trigger happy" as a Senator. [1]

Modern liberalism in the United States is the dominant version of liberalism in the United States. It combines ideas of civil liberty and equality with support for social justice and a mixed economy. According to Ian Adams, all American parties are "liberal and always have been. Essentially, they espouse classical liberalism—that is, a form of democratized Whig constitutionalism, plus the free market. The point of difference comes with the influence of social liberalism". Economically, modern American liberalism opposes cuts to the social safety net and supports a role for government in reducing inequality, providing education, ensuring access to healthcare, regulating economic activity and protecting the natural environment. This form of liberalism took shape in the 20th century United States as the franchise and other civil rights were extended to a larger class of citizens. Major examples include Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism, Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom, Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, Harry S. Truman's Fair Deal, John F. Kennedy's New Frontier and Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society.

Anti-communism political position

Anti-communism is opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in an intense rivalry. Anti-communism has been an element of movements holding many different political positions, including nationalist, social democratic, liberal, libertarian, conservative, fascist, capitalist, anarchist and even socialist viewpoints.

In the end, Clark was re-elected to the United States Senate, winning his second term. He beat Van Zandt in the nine-county area of Southwestern Pennsylvania surrounding Pittsburgh by nearly 200,000 votes, but lost Central Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia suburbs to Van Zandt. Clark increased his margin of victory in the Southwest from 1956, and his 108,000 vote margin in Allegheny County was an important factor in his victory. [1]

Pittsburgh City in western Pennsylvania

Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. As of 2017, a population of 305,704 lives within the city limits, making it the 63rd-largest city in the U.S. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U.S.

Allegheny County, Pennsylvania County in the United States

Allegheny County is a county in the southwest of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2017 the population was 1,223,048, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia County. The county seat is Pittsburgh. Allegheny County is included in the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and in the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area.

Results

General election results [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±
Democratic Joseph S. Clark, Jr. (incumbent)2,238,38351.07%
Republican James E. Van Zandt 2,134,649 48.70%
Socialist Labor Arla A. Albaugh 10,387 0.24%
N/A Other 2 0.00%

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References

  1. 1 2 Kennedy, John J. (2014). Pennsylvania Elections. University Press of America. pp. 45–46. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
  2. "Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 6, 1962" (PDF). Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House. Retrieved 8 July 2014.