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 County results Hill: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% 90–100% Posey: 60-70% | |||||||||||||||||
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TheUnited States Senate election in Alabama of 1944 was held on November 7, 1944.
Incumbent SenatorJ. Lister Hill was re-elected to a second term in office, defeating Republican John A. Posey.
In 1938, Lister Hill defeated former SenatorThomas Heflin to win the Senate seat vacated byHugo Black. Like Black, Hill was a supporter of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt and theNew Deal programs, while Heflin had been supported by the "Big Mule" coalition ofBirmingham industrialist andBlack Belt planters.[1] In opposition to the New Deal, the Big Mules backed a faction of the Democratic Party headed by Birmingham state senator and corporate lawyer James A. Simpson, who had strong antiunion and anti-New Deal sentiments and family connections to theWoodward Iron Company.[1] Many supporters of Roosevelt and the New Deal in the state, led by Horace C. Wilkinson, Black and former GovernorBibb Graves, had strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan,[1] but Hill was not among them.[2]
The 1944 Democratic primary between incumbent Lister Hill and challenger James Simpson was sharply divided on class and racial issues, with Hill generally considered a relatively liberal Southerner for the time.
Simpson's campaign was backed by major industrial interests, while Hill had the support of theCongress of Industrial Organizationspolitical action committee and attacked Simpson as a "high-priced corporation lawyer" and "a vest pocket edition of Wall Street".[1]
During the campaign, Simpson attacked Hill, utilizing racial divisions "solidly interwound with the most hallowed dogmas of the free market."[4] In March, the conservative and pro-businessAlabama magazine featured photographs of First LadyEleanor Roosevelt fraternizing with blacks, an implicit suggestion of the consequences of Hill's liberalism.[1] According to historian Glenn Feldman, the result was a prolonged and ugly campaign. Hill, who had not planned to return to Alabama for the campaign, was forced to return to the state and engage in race baiting to win the election.[4] After 1944, Hill voted consistently againstcivil rights legislation in the Senate, though he remained loyal to the cause of organized labor.[1]
Both candidates made a statewide radio address on May 1, the eve of the election.[5]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | J. Lister Hill (Incumbent) | 126,372 | 55.54% | |
| Democratic | James Simpson | 101,176 | 44.46% | |
| Total votes | 227,548 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | J. Lister Hill (Incumbent) | 202,604 | 81.78% | ||
| Republican | John A. Posey | 41,983 | 16.95% | ||
| Prohibition | Hollis B. Parrish | 3,162 | 1.28% | ||
| Turnout | 247,749 | ||||
| Democratichold | |||||
[Hill] handily turned back challengers in four Democratic primaries (at the time equivalent to election), defeating James Simpson in 1944, Lawrence McNeil in 1950, and John Crommelin in 1956 and 1962.
Lister Hill's Senate run in 1944 against James Simpson is oft-cited as evidence of Alabama's liberalism in the 1940's. Feldman finds it the opposite; what should have been an easy victory for Hill turned into a prolonged and ugly campaign. Simpson used race "solidly interwound with the most hallowed dogmas of the free market," to curry favor, and Hill, who had not planned to return to Alabama to campaign, was forced to race bait to win re-election., reviewingFeldman, Glenn (2015).The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Model for America's New Conservatism. Tuscaloosa, Al.: University of Alabama Press.ISBN 9780817318666.
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See also:Political party strength in Alabama | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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