TwoUnited States Senate elections (a regular and a special election) were held inIllinois on March 26, 1913. The two elections were interconnected through a compromise made to elect aDemocrat in the regular election and aRepublican in the special election.
These were the last elections to U.S. Senate from Illinois to take place by vote of state legislature, as theSeventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution would make all subsequent U.S. Senate elections conducted by a popular vote.
The elections saw the election of DemocratJ. Hamilton Lewis to a full term in the state's class 2 United States Senate seat in a regular election, and RepublicanLawrence Y. Sherman to the state's class 3 United States Senate seat in a special election.
In theNovember 1912 state elections, the Republicans lost control of theIllinois General Assembly due to theRepublican /Progressive split.[citation needed] But while the Democrats held a plurality of the Illinois General Assembly, they did not have a majority. The General Assembly took up the matter of electing the senators on February 1.[citation needed] The General Assembly therefore failed to elect until after the new congress began.
On March 26, in a compromise arranged by governorDunne, the General Assembly elected DemocratJ. Hamilton Lewis to fill the full-term seat and RepublicanLawrence Y. Sherman to fill the two remaining years of a vacancy that had just recently opened. This broke adeadlock on the matter that had been in place since February 11.[1]
Non-binding preferenceprimaries were held April 9, 1912, which informed the legislature of the preferred candidate of the voters that participated in each party's primaries. They coincided with binding primaries held for other offices.[2]
While the party was eligible to hold a primary, no Socialist primary was held for the office of U.S. Senator.[2]
On April 12, 1912, five-term Republican incumbentShelby Moore Cullom lost renomination toLieutenant Governor of IllinoisLawrence Y. Sherman in the Republican "advisory" primary, where the voters expressed their preference for senator but the decision was not binding on theGeneral Assembly, which made the actual choice. Cullom had suffered politically over his support for the other Illinois senator,William Lorimer, who was embroiled in a scandal over alleged bribery in his1909 election to the Senate. After his defeat, Cullom withdrew his name from consideration by the General Assembly.[citation needed]
TheIllinois General Assembly eventually elected the Democratic nominee, CongressmanJ. Hamilton Lewis March 26, 1913, who had previously won the Democratic advisory primary as the sole candidate on the ballot. Before their conclusive March 26 vote, after a compromise was stricken, the Illinois legislature had twelve-times cast deadlocked ballots for the class 2 senate seat.James Hamilton Lewis was the first non-Republican to win this seat since1877 and was the first non-Republican to have held this seat since 1883.[5]
Illinois legislative vote, class 2 (March 26, 1913)[1][6]
In July 1912, the U.S. Senate invalidatedWilliam Lorimer's1909 election and declared the seat vacant.[8] TheIllinois Attorney General,William H. Stead determined that the General Assembly had failed to properly elect Lorimer in 1909 and so the governor could not appoint a replacement.[9] As a result, the General Assembly had a second Senate seat to fill.
Lawrence Y. Sherman, who had won the Republican advisory primary for Illinois’ regular senate election, was elected in the special election. Sherman defeated Democratic candidate Charles Boeschenstein, a newspaper publisher fromEdwardsville and Democratic National Committeeman from Illinois.[10]
Illinois special legislative vote, class 3 (March 26, 1913)[11][6]
^Smith, George Washington (1927).History of Illinois and Her People. Vol. 4. American Historical Society Inc. p. 14. RetrievedDecember 26, 2023 – via Google Books.
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