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 County results Municipality resultsBrooke: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Peabody: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1966 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 8, 1966. Republican incumbentLeverett Saltonstall retired after serving for 22 years.RepublicanMassachusetts Attorney GeneralEdward Brooke defeated Democratic formerGovernor of MassachusettsEndicott Peabody in a landslide.
Brooke was the first African-American U.S. Senator elected after the end ofReconstruction and the first ever popularly elected, as Reconstruction ended before the passage of theSeventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This election marked the first time sinceReconstruction in 1874 that an African-American was elected to the United States Senate andEdward Brooke's inauguration was the first time since 1881 that an African-American United States senator held a United States Senate seat.
MacKay campaigned against Brooke for refusing to backBarry Goldwater's 1964 presidential campaign. During the first stage of the campaign, conservative spokespersons engaged in an anti-Brooke publicity and letter-writing campaign.[3] Conservatives were particularly critical of Brooke's book,The Challenge of Change. A critical review of the book was mailed to all Republican convention delegates along with a questionnaire linking Brooke's views to the Communist Party and Americans for Democratic Action. A third mailing went out accusing Brooke of participating in "the phonyGreat Society schemes ofL.B.J. and his curious crew."[3]
However, conservative attacks were blunted when Goldwater endorsed Brooke in May and made a $100 donation to his campaign.[1][3] Brooke also received the support ofGeorge W. Romney, a leading contender for the presidency in 1968.[3]
In advance of the convention, Brooke asked the party to endorse the United States effort in Vietnam and the recent Supreme Court decision regarding the rights of detainees inMiranda v. Arizona. McKay argued for a more aggressive bombing campaign in Southeast Asia and criticizedMiranda as "rendering more difficult the proper enforcement of our laws."[2]
Brooke won the party endorsement at the June 25 convention and was unopposed in the September primary.[1]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Edward W. Brooke | 1,485 | 87.35% | |
| Republican | J. Alan MacKay | 215 | 12.65% | |
| Total votes | 1,700 | 100.00% | ||
Following the result, which precluded MacKay from seeking a primary challenge, Brooke declared, "This is a proud moment in my life, a moment which has no parallel."[4]
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| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Endicott Peabody | 320,967 | 50.35% | |
| Democratic | John F. Collins | 265,016 | 41.85% | |
| Democratic | Thomas Boylston Adams | 51,435 | 8.07% | |
| Total votes | 637,418 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Edward Brooke | 1,213,473 | 60.68% |  4.49 | |
| Democratic | Endicott Peabody | 774,761 | 38.74% |  4.72 | |
| Socialist Labor | Lawrence Gilfedder | 6,790 | 0.34% | 0.10 | |
| Prohibition | Mark R. Shaw | 4,833 | 0.24% | 0.12 | |
| Total votes | 1,999,857 | 100.00% | |||
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