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| Turnout | 81.74% | ||||||||||||||||
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 County results Dirksen: 50-60% 60-70% 70-80% Stengel: 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1956 United States Senate election in Illinois was held on November 6, 1956[1] to elect one ofIllinois's members to theUnited States Senate.IncumbentRepublican U.S. SenatorEverett Dirksen won reelection to a second term.
The primaries and general election coincided with those for federal offices (President andHouse) andstate elections.
Primaries were held on April 10.[1]
Turnout in the primary elections was 26.26%, with a total of 1,307,357 votes cast.[1][2]
Turnout during the general election was 81.74%, with 4,264,830 votes cast.[1][3]
In 1955,Scott W. Lucas, who lost to Everett Dirksen in the1950 election, explored a candidacy to "regain" his seat. Lucas faced opposition fromorganized labor for his perceived lukewarm support of their agenda.[4] Other candidates who publicly expressed interest were State Senator James Gray ofEast St. Louis, State Representative Richard Stengel ofRock Island, and Roy E. Yung ofSpringfield, a former director of theIllinois Department of Agriculture.[5] The Democratic Party nominated Richard Stengel, who ran unopposed in the primary.[6]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Richard Stengel | 621,005 | 99.99 | |
| Write-in | 50 | 0.01 | ||
| Total votes | 621,055 | 100 | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Everett McKinley Dirksen (incumbent) | 686,268 | 100 | |
| Write-in | 34 | 0.01 | ||
| Total votes | 686,302 | 100 | ||
Dirksen carried 88 of the state's 102 counties.[1] Among the 88 counties that Dirksen won was the state's most populous county,Cook County, in which Dirksen won with 51.13% to Stengel's 48.63%.[1] Despite losing in Cook County, Stengel performed better in the county than he did in the cumulative vote of the remaining 101 counties[1] In the cumulative vote of the state's other 101 counties, Dirksen won 57.32% to Stengel's 42.58%.[1] 51.97% of the votes cast in the election were from Cook County.[1]
While he lost the overall vote in Cook County as a whole, in Cook County's principal city,Chicago (where 37.79% of all votes cast in the election were from), Stengel won 54.33% of the vote to Dirksen's 45.37%[1]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Everett McKinley Dirksen (incumbent) | 2,307,552 | 54.11 | |
| Democratic | Richard Stengel | 1,949,883 | 45.72 | |
| Socialist Labor | Louis Fisher | 7,587 | 0.18 | |
| Write-in | 8 | 0.00 | ||
| Total votes | 4,264,830 | 100 | ||
