 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Tydings: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The1938 United States Senate election in Maryland was held on November 8, 1938. IncumbentDemocratic U.S. SenatorMillard Tydings was re-elected to a third term in office, easily defeating Republican Oscar Leser.
Primary elections were held on September 12. faced a primary challenge from U.S. RepresentativeDavid John Lewis, who was backed by PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt in the President's attempt to purge the Democratic Party of conservatives. He survived comfortably by a two-to-one margin. Leser defeated Galen L. Tait for the Republican nomination.
As of 2023[update], this was the last time a Democratic candidate for Senate won every county in Maryland.
Senator Millard Tydings, a member of the conservative Southern wing of the Democratic Party, was opposed to PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt'sNew Deal from the beginning and voted against most of its provisions.[1][2] Though Tydings began reconciliation with the administration overgrowing international concerns, Roosevelt's top priority in the 1938 midterms remained economic recovery and theSecond New Deal.[3] He privately told Interior SecretaryHarold L. Ickes to "take Tydings' hide off and rub salt in it."[2] Aware of Roosevelt's opposition and popularity, Tydings publicly insisted he supported the "bone and sinew" of the New Deal and that claims of his opposition were "silly propaganda."[2]
The Roosevelt administration faced an uphill battle from the start. Tydings retained the backing of junior SenatorGeorge L. P. Radcliffe, a New Deal supporter who had been unaware that Roosevelt would target Tydings.[2] The White House settled on U.S. RepresentativeDavid John Lewis as their preferred candidate only after Lewis and Tydings had announced re-election campaigns and many county organizations had endorsed both men. Once Lewis did announce his challenge to Senator Tydings, leading Maryland Democrats declared neutrality.[2]
Lewis, a former mine worker, did retain the backing of the labor movement in the state, including endorsements from theAmerican Federation of Labor andJohn L. Lewis. Additional praise from the Maryland Communist Party, however, may have hampered his campaign.[2] Tydings attacked Lewis for his ties to organized labor and appealed to unorganized farmers instead, while Lewis labeled Tydings a "Tory Republican" for his ties to theAmerican Liberty League and support from Republican voters.[2]
Roosevelt himself worked to rally support for Lewis by dispatching political allies to the state and leaning on donors to support the campaign. He entered the campaign personally in August by praising Lewis in the press as a "legislative father" of Social Security and approvingly reciting an editorial arguing Tydings "had betrayed the New Deal in the past and will again." OnLabor Day weekend, he campaigned on the conservativeEastern Shore, culminating in a speech inDenton. Though the speech did not mention Tydings by name, Roosevelt praised Lewis and criticized the idea of a politician who would "pretend to be one [thing] and act like the other."[2]
Tydings evaded ideological attacks, maintaining that he was "not running particularly as an Old Dealer nor particularly as a New Dealer but I hope as a square dealer."[2] He framed his campaign as a defense of states' rights against individual rule by Roosevelt, which he referred to as an "invasion."[2] Tydings supporters accused Roosevelt of a move toward "dictatorship," with one editorial calling himStalin,Mussolini, andHitler "rolled into one" with "a Harvard accent and a billion dollar smile." TheChicago Tribune framed the race as "Americanism against communism."[2]
Tydings easily survived the challenge. He may have benefited from the fact that sixty thousand of the Black voters who supported Roosevelt in the 1936 presidential election were registered Republicans.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Millard Tydings (inc.) | 189,719 | 58.86% | |
| Democratic | David John Lewis | 124,439 | 38.60% | |
| Democratic | Arthur E. Hungerford | 8,186 | 2.54% | |
| Total votes | 322,344 | 100.00% | ||
Ultimately, Tydings reconciled with the Roosevelt administration in response to the outbreak ofWorld War II. He was an energetic supporter of theSelective Training and Service Act of 1940, supported repeal of the American arms embargo, and voted in favor of theLend-Lease Act.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Oscar Leser | 48,716 | 56.69% | |
| Republican | Galen L. Tait | 37,225 | 43.32% | |
| Total votes | 85,941 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Millard Tydings (inc.) | 357,245 | 68.28% | |
| Republican | Oscar Leser | 153,253 | 29.29% | |
| Union | George W. Hunt | 5,784 | 1.11% | |
| Socialist | Elisabeth Gilman | 3,311 | 0.63% | |
| Labor[a] | Frank N.H. Lang | 2,330 | 0.45% | |
| Communist | Harry Straw | 1,301 | 0.25% | |
| Democratic | David John Lewis (write-in) | 12 | 0.00% | |
| Write-in | All others | 2 | 0.00% | |
| Total votes | 523,238 | 100.00% | ||
| Democratichold | ||||
| County | Millard E. Tydings Democratic | Oscar Leser Republican | George W. Hunt Union | Elisabeth Gilman Socialist | Other Other | Margin | Total Votes Cast | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | # | % | ||
| Allegany | 13658 | 53.58% | 10885 | 42.70% | 134 | 0.53% | 228 | 0.89% | 588 | 2.31% | 2773 | 10.88% | 25493 |
| Anne Arundel | 13136 | 67.66% | 5882 | 30.29% | 64 | 0.33% | 160 | 0.82% | 174 | 0.90% | 7254 | 37.36% | 19416 |
| Baltimore (City) | 162132 | 68.56% | 67092 | 28.37% | 4818 | 2.04% | 1712 | 0.72% | 712 | 0.30% | 95040 | 40.19% | 236466 |
| Baltimore (County) | 33389 | 73.19% | 11014 | 24.14% | 396 | 0.87% | 389 | 0.85% | 431 | 0.94% | 22375 | 49.05% | 45619 |
| Calvert | 2363 | 61.87% | 1410 | 36.92% | 2 | 0.05% | 7 | 0.18% | 37 | 0.97% | 953 | 24.95% | 3819 |
| Caroline | 4061 | 67.62% | 1857 | 30.92% | 14 | 0.23% | 21 | 0.35% | 53 | 0.88% | 2204 | 36.70% | 6006 |
| Carroll | 8859 | 68.04% | 3994 | 30.67% | 38 | 0.29% | 77 | 0.59% | 53 | 0.41% | 4865 | 37.36% | 13021 |
| Cecil | 6233 | 70.83% | 2426 | 27.57% | 14 | 0.16% | 39 | 0.44% | 88 | 1.00% | 3807 | 43.26% | 8800 |
| Charles | 2440 | 73.47% | 856 | 25.78% | 5 | 0.15% | 4 | 0.12% | 16 | 0.48% | 1584 | 47.70% | 3321 |
| Dorchester | 5853 | 61.04% | 3604 | 37.58% | 26 | 0.27% | 25 | 0.26% | 81 | 0.84% | 2249 | 23.45% | 9589 |
| Frederick | 12048 | 63.13% | 6673 | 34.96% | 50 | 0.26% | 82 | 0.43% | 232 | 1.22% | 5375 | 28.16% | 19085 |
| Garrett | 2951 | 51.28% | 2634 | 45.77% | 17 | 0.30% | 54 | 0.94% | 99 | 1.72% | 317 | 5.51% | 5755 |
| Harford | 8424 | 76.57% | 2460 | 22.36% | 7 | 0.06% | 35 | 0.32% | 75 | 0.68% | 5964 | 54.21% | 11001 |
| Howard | 4609 | 69.21% | 1966 | 29.52% | 16 | 0.24% | 12 | 0.18% | 56 | 0.84% | 2643 | 39.69% | 6659 |
| Kent | 3458 | 68.08% | 1581 | 31.13% | 3 | 0.06% | 19 | 0.37% | 18 | 0.35% | 1877 | 36.96% | 5079 |
| Montgomery | 17583 | 74.94% | 5557 | 23.68% | 36 | 0.15% | 142 | 0.61% | 145 | 0.62% | 12026 | 51.26% | 23463 |
| Prince George's | 14673 | 73.37% | 4941 | 24.71% | 47 | 0.24% | 104 | 0.52% | 233 | 1.17% | 9732 | 48.66% | 19998 |
| Queen Anne's | 3998 | 72.30% | 1467 | 26.53% | 5 | 0.09% | 15 | 0.27% | 45 | 0.81% | 2531 | 45.77% | 5530 |
| St. Mary's | 3092 | 70.42% | 1230 | 28.01% | 14 | 0.32% | 13 | 0.30% | 42 | 0.96% | 1862 | 42.40% | 4391 |
| Somerset | 5032 | 67.16% | 2412 | 32.19% | 5 | 0.07% | 14 | 0.19% | 30 | 0.40% | 2620 | 34.97% | 7493 |
| Talbot | 4793 | 68.45% | 2130 | 30.42% | 6 | 0.09% | 35 | 0.50% | 38 | 0.54% | 2663 | 38.03% | 7002 |
| Washington | 13576 | 64.62% | 7005 | 33.34% | 51 | 0.24% | 94 | 0.45% | 284 | 1.35% | 6571 | 31.28% | 21010 |
| Wicomico | 6450 | 69.59% | 2717 | 29.31% | 13 | 0.14% | 19 | 0.20% | 70 | 0.76% | 3733 | 40.27% | 9269 |
| Worcester | 4434 | 74.66% | 1460 | 24.58% | 3 | 0.05% | 11 | 0.19% | 31 | 0.52% | 2974 | 50.08% | 5939 |
| Total | 357245 | 68.28% | 153253 | 29.29% | 5784 | 1.11% | 3311 | 0.63% | 3631 | 0.69% | 203992 | 38.99% | 523224 |
| General | |
|---|---|
| Governor |
|
| State Senate | |
| House of Delegates | |
| U.S. President | |
| U.S. Senate |
|
| U.S. House |
|
| Attorney General | |
| Comptroller | |
| County Executive | |
See also:Political party strength in Maryland | |
