1954 United States Senate election in South Carolina

1954 United States Senate election in South Carolina

← 1948 November 2, 1954 1956 (special) →
 
Candidate Strom Thurmond
(write-in)
Edgar A. Brown
Party Democratic Democratic
Popular vote 143,444 83,525
Percentage 63.13% 36.76%

Thurmond:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90% Brown:      50-60%      60-70%      >90%

U.S. senator before election

Charles E. Daniel
Democratic

Elected U.S. Senator

Strom Thurmond
Democratic

The 1954 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 1954. Senator Burnet R. Maybank did not face a primary challenge in the summer and was therefore renominated as the Democratic nominee for the election in the fall. However, his death on September 1 left the Democratic Party without a nominee, and the executive committee nominated state Senator Edgar A. Brown as their replacement candidate. Many South Carolinians were outraged by the party's decision to forgo a primary election, and former Governor Strom Thurmond entered the race as a write-in candidate. He easily won the election and became the first U.S. senator to be elected by a write-in vote in an election where other candidates had ballot access (William Knowland of California in 1946 was the first Senate candidate to win via write-in, but the ballots in that election were blank with no candidates listed, so essentially every candidate was running a write-in campaign).[1] A Senate election where the victor won by a write-in campaign did not happen again until 2010.

  1. ^ Wilgoren, Debbi (November 3, 2010). "Murkowski appears to make history in Alaska". ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved November 3, 2010.