Loading AI tools
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1961 United States Senate special election in Texas was held on May 27, 1961. The election was held to replace outgoing Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been elected Vice President of the United States.
 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  Tower: 20–30% 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Blakley: 20–30% 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Republican John Tower, who had been the nominee for the regularly scheduled election in 1960, defeated 70 other candidates to become the first Republican to represent Texas in the Senate since Reconstruction in 1877. Tower was also the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate in any former Confederate state.
Because Texas had been a Solid South state, the loss of Johnson's Senate seat would be seen as a stinging defeat for the Kennedy administration and the Democratic Party, given that the Civil Rights Movement was getting off the ground and the increasing sympathy for it amongst increasingly influential liberal Democrats.
One of the Democrats who were defeated in the first round was congressman Jim Wright, who went on to briefly serve as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in the late 1980s.
Seventy-one candidates were on the ballot for the primary election. At the time, the filing fee for ballot access was only $50.
The primary was held on April 4.
None of these candidates received more than 0.5% of the popular vote.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Tower | 327,308 | 30.93% | |
| Democratic | William Blakley (incumbent) | 190,818 | 18.03% | |
| Democratic | Jim Wright | 171,328 | 16.19% | |
| Democratic | Will Wilson | 121,961 | 11.53% | |
| Democratic | Maury Maverick Jr. | 104,992 | 9.92% | |
| Democratic | Henry B. Gonzalez | 97,659 | 9.23% | |
| Various | Minor candidates | 44,058 | 4.16% | |
| Total votes | 1,058,124 | 100.00% | ||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | John Tower | 448,217 | 50.58% |  9.46 | |
| Democratic | William A. Blakley (incumbent) | 437,874 | 49.42% |  8.56 | |
| Total votes | 886,091 | 100.00% | |||
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
.jpg)
.png)
