1930 United States Senate election in Illinois

1930 United States Senate election in Illinois

← 1924 November 4, 1930 1936 →
 
Nominee J. Hamilton Lewis Ruth Hanna McCormick
Party Democratic Republican
Popular vote 1,432,216 687,469
Percentage 64.02% 30.73%

Results by county
Lewis:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%
Hanna McCormick:      40–50%      50–60%

U.S. senator before election

Charles S. Deneen
Republican

Elected U.S. senator

J. Hamilton Lewis
Democratic

The 1930 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 4, 1930.[1]

Incumbent Republican Charles S. Deneen was unseated in the Republican Party's primary election. Democrat J. Hamilton Lewis, who previously held this Senate seat from 1913 to 1919, won a second nonconsecutive term.

This election was notable as being the first instance in which a major party nominated a female candidate for United States Senate, with Ruth Hanna McCormick, widow of Deneen's predecessor in this seat Medill McCormick, becoming the Republican nominee after defeating Deneen in the Republican party’s primary election.

This was the first time since the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution made U.S. senators popularly elected that a Democrat won a U.S. Senate election in the state of Illinois.

  1. ^ "OFFICIAL VOTE OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS CAST AT THE GENERAL ELECTION, NOV. 4, 1930 JUDICIAL ELECTIONS, 1929–1930 PRIMARY ELECTION GENERAL PRIMARY, APRIL 8, 1930" (PDF). Illinois State Board of Elections. Retrieved December 15, 2020.[permanent dead link]