 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
O'Daniel: 20–30% 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% Johnson: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% >90% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The1941 United States Senate special election in Texas was held on June 28, 1941, to complete the unexpired term of SenatorMorris Sheppard, who died in office on April 9. Interim SenatorAndrew Jackson Houston did not run for re-election and died only two days before the election. The race was won by GovernorPappy O'Daniel with a plurality of the vote; no majority was required.
O'Daniel very narrowly defeated U.S. RepresentativeLyndon B. Johnson, who won the seat after O'Daniel's retirement in 1948.
In April 1941, incumbent SenatorMorris Sheppard died in office. GovernorPappy O'Daniel appointedAndrew Jackson Houston to fill the seat until a successor could be duly elected, with the election scheduled for June 28. The winner finished Sheppard's term ending in 1943. Houston did not run to complete the term, only serving as a placeholder for Governor O'Daniel. He died in office only two days before the election.
None of these candidates received more than 0.30% of the popular vote.
All of these candidates were Democrats except Evans (Republican), Fletcher (Republican), Jones (Independent), and Brooks (Communist).
The first pre-election polls showed U.S. RepresentativeLyndon B. Johnson receiving only 5% of the vote, but Johnson ran a fierce campaign, barnstorming the state and emphasizing his close relationship with President Roosevelt.[3]
On Election Day, Johnson held a strong lead in the returns throughout the whole night, and with 96 percent of the ballots counted, Johnson held a 5,000-vote lead.[4] According toJohn Connally, future Governor and Johnson's campaign manager, local election officials began calling Connally's office and asking him about whether they should report the vote tallies.[5] Connally told them to report the votes, which allegedly allowed O'Daniel's political allies among theSouth andEast Texas party bosses to know the exact number of fraudulent votes needed for O'Daniel to catch up to Johnson.[6] According to Connally,
The opposition then — Governor O'Daniel and his people — knew exactly how many votes they had to have to take the lead... They kept changing the results, and our lead got smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, we wound up on the short side of the stick and lost the election by 1,311 votes. I'm basically responsible for losing that 1941 campaign. We let them know exactly how many votes they had to have.[7]
In addition to O'Daniel's allies, state business interests aligned with former impeached and convicted Texas Governor"Pa" Ferguson had been concerned with O'Daniel's support of prohibition as Governor; they believed that he could do much less damage to their cause in the Senate.[8] The lieutenant governor,Coke R. Stevenson, was not in favor of prohibition, making his possible promotion to Governor a key selling point for the state's business interests in manipulating the election results.[9] In the final vote tally, Johnson fell short by just 0.23% of the vote.[10]
InThe Path to Power, Johnson biographerRobert Caro argues that the election results were manipulated in O'Daniel's favor by lobbyists from Texas' alcohol industry. O'Daniel was a staunchprohibitionist, and as Governor, he had proposed a bill preventing the sale of alcohol within ten miles of a military base; Caro notes how business interests feared the passing of this bill, as preparations forWorld War II had brought thousands of young soldiers into the region. To prevent the passing of this bill, lobbyists sought to elect O'Daniel to the Senate to place the "wet" lieutenant governorCoke Stevenson in the governorship, and hence rigged ballots in East Texas, swinging the election in O'Daniel's favor.[11]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Pappy O'Daniel | 175,590 | 30.49% | |
| Democratic | Lyndon B. Johnson | 174,279 | 30.26% | |
| Democratic | Gerald Mann | 140,807 | 24.45% | |
| Democratic | Martin Dies Jr. | 80,653 | 14.01% | |
| Various | Minor candidates | 4,548 | 0.79% | |
| Total votes | 575,877 | 100.00% | ||
_(3x4).jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
.png)
