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 County results Johnston: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Workman: 50-60% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1962 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 6, 1962 to select theU.S. Senator from the state ofSouth Carolina. IncumbentDemocratic SenatorOlin D. Johnston defeatedGovernorFritz Hollings in the Democratic primary andRepublicanW. D. Workman, Jr. in the general election.
TheSouth Carolina Democratic Party held theirprimary on June 12, 1962.Olin D. Johnston, the incumbentSenator, faced stiff competition fromGovernorFritz Hollings who argued that Johnston was too liberal and not representative of South Carolina interests. Johnston merely told the voters that he was doing what he thought was best for the agriculture and textile workers of the state. Hollings was decisively defeated by Johnston because Johnston used his position asPost Office and Civil Service Committee to build 40 new post offices in the state and thus demonstrate the pull he had inWashington to bring home the bacon.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Olin D. Johnston (incumbent) | 216,918 | 66.3 | ||
| Democratic | Fritz Hollings | 110,023 | 33.7 | ||
W. D. Workman, Jr., a correspondent for theNews and Courier, faced no opposition fromSouth Carolina Republicans and avoided aprimary election.
Both Johnston and Workman supportedsegregation, so the campaign centered on the economic issues of the state. Workman tried to persuade the voters that Johnston's policies were socialist and that he was too closely aligned with theKennedy administration. Johnston was a consistent supporter of socialized health care proposals and Workman was able to win considerable support from the medical establishment. However, the state's citizens were much poorer than that of the rest of the nation and Johnston's class based appeals made him a very popular figure for the downtrodden of both the white and black races. The competitive nature of this race foresaw the eventual rise of the Republican Party and that South Carolinians were growing increasingly suspicious of policies generated at the federal level.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Olin D. Johnston (incumbent) | 178,712 | 57.16% | −25.05% | |
| Republican | W. D. Workman, Jr. | 133,930 | 42.84% | +25.09% | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 5 | 0.00% | N/A | |
| Majority | 44,782 | 14.32% | −50.14% | ||
| Turnout | 312,647 | 46.9 | +8.8 | ||
| Democratichold | |||||
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