 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Municipality resultsLonergan: 40–50% 50–60% 60-70% Bingham: 40–50% 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% 80-90% Tie: 50% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The1932 United States Senate election in Connecticut was held on November 8, 1932. Incumbent SenatorHiram Bingham III ran for a second full term in office but was defeated by Democratic U.S. RepresentativeAugustine Lonergan. This was the first time since 1879 that Democrats won this Senate seat, and the first since 1881 that they won either seat.
This was despite the fact that Connecticut was one of only six states PresidentHerbert Hoover carried in his landslide defeat byFranklin D. Roosevelt, Lonergan won the seat as one of eleven gains made by the Democrats in 1932.
The Republican Party met in convention in New Haven on September 7 and nominated a unanimous ticket, including Senator Bingham.[1]
Entering the September 7 convention atGroton, the Democratic Party was split between supporters of the presidential campaigns ofAl Smith, who had carried the Connecticut delegation in April, andFranklin D. Roosevelt, who had won the nomination in July. In the Senate race, the Roosevelt faction backed professorHarry Morgan Ayres while the Smith faction supportedFrancis T. Maloney. In the event of deadlock, State Senator Michael Connor said he would present Thomas Hewes, a member of the staff of Governor Wilbur Cross, as a compromise.[2][3]
Lonergan was successful at the convention, aligning himself with the pro-Smith "old guard" faction over the pro-Roosevelt "new guard."[4]
Bingham campaigned as a "wet," or anti-Prohibitionist, Republican in an effort to win Democratic votes.[5] In April, Bingham blamed Prohibition as indirectly responsible for theLindbergh kidnapping, which he believed to be the work of associates ofAl Capone.[6] In July, SenatorGeorge W. Norris of Nebraska commented on Bingham's persistent proposals to legislate the repeal of Prohibition, "If he dies and goes to Heaven, as I know he will, and St. Peter opens the gates, the Senator from Connecticut will refuse to go in unless he has a bottle of beer under his arm."[7] He also campaigned as an opponent of paper money andfree silver and a proponent of the Hoover administration.[8]
Bingham's opposition to Prohibition led Milton Conover, a Yale professor and vigorous defender of the preservation and enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, to enter the race.[9]
On Election Day, Lonergan narrowly unseated Bingham. Conover's 10,621 votes were more than double the number separating the incumbent Bingham from victory.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Augustine Lonergan | 282,327 | 47.50% |  11.94 | |
| Republican | Hiram Bingham III (incumbent) | 278,061 | 46.78% |  16.53 | |
| Socialist | Devere Allen | 19,774 | 3.33% | 2.28 | |
| Independent Republican | Milton Conover | 10,621 | 1.79% | N/A | |
| Socialist Labor | John L. Grennan | 2,243 | 0.38% | N/A | |
| Communist | William Secker | 1,376 | 0.23% | N/A | |
| Total votes | 556,853 | 100.0% | |||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | Swing | ||||
Senator Hiram Bingham, campaigning for re-election declared in a speech here today that paper money and "16-to-1 silver" were in the offing if the Democratic national ticket was elected in November.
