 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
 County results Johnston: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% Smith: 30–40% 50–60% | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The1944 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 7, 1944, to select theU.S. Senator from the state ofSouth Carolina.
On July 25, Governor Olin Johnston defeated incumbent senator Ellison "Cotton Ed" Smith in the Democratic primary with 55.2% of the vote.
At this time, South Carolina was a one-party state, and the Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory. Johnston won the November general election with only token opposition from RepublicanJames B. Gaston. A victory by Johnston was never in doubt.
By 1944,Ellison D. Smith had served 35 years in the Senate and was approaching his 80th birthday. He was an ardent foe of theNew Deal in the Senate and opposed almost every policy of PresidentRoosevelt. His opponent in the previousSenate election wasGovernorOlin D. Johnston, who challenged him once again in the Democratic primary. While Johnston was fully supportive of the New Deal in 1938, he had moderated his enthusiasm towards Roosevelt's domestic policies in 1944. Johnston instead would put a great deal of focus into praising Roosevelt's popular foreign policy which was succeeding in bringing the United States closer to victory inWorld War II.
Smith had campaigned over the years on a two plank platform: keep the negroes down and the price of cotton up. Yet Johnston was able seize the mantle of white supremacy from Smith in 1944. TheSupreme Court had decided early in the year in the caseSmith v. Allwright thatprimary elections must be open to all, regardless of race. Johnston, as governor, had called theGeneral Assembly into session to make theSouth Carolina Democratic Party a private club so that it could restrict its primaries to white voters. Thus on the campaign trail Johnston was able to prove to the voters that he had acted during a time of crisis to save the Democratic primary from the blacks. Furthermore, Johnston's youthful appearance contrasted sharply with Smith's aged and tired persona. The voters were shocked when Smith failed to deliver a full speech during one debate with Johnston and instead played a recording of a speech he had made six years prior.
| Democratic Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| Olin D. Johnston | 138,440 | 55.2 |
| Ellison D. Smith | 88,085 | 35.1 |
| John M. Daniel | 14,572 | 5.8 |
| Carl B. Epps | 6,861 | 2.7 |
| A.S. Merrimon | 2,858 | 1.2 |
Winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to winning the general election, so Johnston was virtually assured of becoming the next senator from South Carolina. TheSouth Carolina Republican Party was controlled by the white faction and they nominated James B. Gaston as their candidate. The Tolbertblack and tan faction was rebuffed by the nationalRepublican Party, but they proceeded to nominate B.L. Hendrix for the election. Many of the black civil rights leaders of the state decided to form their own political party in response to the state Democratic party becoming a private entity. Their party, called theProgressive Democratic Party, nominated Osceola E. McKaine for the Senate election with the sole purpose of motivating blacks in the state to register and vote.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Olin D. Johnston | 94,556 | 92.94% | −5.95% | |
| Republican | James B. Gaston | 3,807 | 3.74% | +2.63% | |
| Progressive Democratic | Osceola E. McKaine | 3,214 | 3.16% | N/A | |
| Republican (Tolbert) | B.L. Hendrix | 141 | 0.14% | N/A | |
| No party | Write-Ins | 18 | 0.02% | N/A | |
| Majority | 90,749 | 89.20% | −8.58% | ||
| Turnout | 101,736 | ||||
| Democratichold | |||||
.jpg)
