1916 United States Senate election in Massachusetts

← 1911 November 7, 1916 1922 →

Nominee Henry Cabot Lodge John F. Fitzgerald Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 267,177 234,238 Percentage 51.68% 45.31%

Senator before election Henry Cabot Lodge Republican Elected Senator Henry Cabot Lodge Republican

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v t e

The 1916 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 7, 1916. Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge defeated Democratic Mayor of Boston John F. Fitzgerald to win election to a fifth term.

This was the first United States Senate election in Massachusetts decided by popular vote, as required by the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Republican primary

Candidates

• Henry Cabot Lodge, incumbent Senator since 1893

Results

Democratic primary

Candidates

• John F. Fitzgerald, former Mayor of Boston and U.S. Representative (grandfather of future President John F. Kennedy)

Background

In 1914 Mayor of Boston John F. Fitzgerald was strongly popular in the city, leading him to consider a challenge against the powerful Senator Lodge.^[2] When he wavered on whether to run for another term in office, however, James Michael Curley entered the race and usurped him in the January 1914 election. Fitzgerald briefly ran for re-election to another term in office, before withdrawing in December 1913. Though he cited illness, he was in fact being blackmailed by Curley and attorney Daniel H. Coakley, who had learned of his indiscretions with a cigarette girl, Elizabeth "Toodles" Ryan.^[3]

Campaign

The Democratic state convention was held in Springfield on October 7.^[4] Fitzgerald addressed the convention, praising President Wilson and criticizing Lodge, his Senate colleague John W. Weeks, and former President Theodore Roosevelt for opposing the President's re-election during war-time.^[5]

Results

General election

Candidates

• John F. Fitzgerald, former Mayor of Boston and U.S. Representative (Democratic)
• Henry Cabot Lodge, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1893 (Republican)
• William N. McDonald (Socialist)

Campaign

The first shot of the general election came in September, before the primary elections. At a Lodge campaign rally in Beverly, the Senator made no mention of Fitzgerald, but campaign backer Arthur Black criticized the former mayor's candidacy as a vanity run. Lodge focused his campaign on criticism of President Wilson and support for Republican nominee Charles Evans Hughes.^[7]

Fitzgerald attacked Lodge for his opposition to the direct election of Senators and the Federal Employees' Compensation Act. He declared that "[Lodge's] career shows a singular lack of touch with the people... it is for private interests that he has stood during his career."^[8]

Lodge also faced criticism over his charge of weakness against President Wilson's response to the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. Lodge was forced to withdraw his charge.^[8]

Results

Aftermath

In 1952, Fitzgerald's grandson John F. Kennedy defeated Lodge's grandson Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. to win election to this same Senate seat. Fitzgerald's daughter Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy would say that her son John had "evened the score" with the Lodges and avenged her father's defeat. A final contest between the two families came in 1962, when Ted Kennedy defeated George C. Lodge for the same seat.^[10]