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| Elections in Arkansas |
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The 1954 United States Senate election in Arkansas took place on November 2, 1954. Incumbent U.S. Senator John L. McClellan was re-elected to a third term in office, after defeating a primary challenge from former Governor of Arkansas Sid McMath.
Because the Republican Party (or any other party) did not field a candidate in the general election, McClellan's primary victory was tantamount to election.
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See also: 1952 Arkansas gubernatorial election |
In 1952, incumbent Governor of Arkansas Sid McMath was defeated in a hotly contested Democratic primary by judge Francis Cherry, who went on to win the election in the landslide fashion typical of Southern Democrats at the time. McMath, a young political liberal, blamed his defeat on his own refusal to acquiesce to "power interests" in the state, specifically his plan for a farmer-owned Ozark steam generating plant.[1] McMath claimed that representatives of the "power interests" had offered him political support if he would drop his support for the plan, but he declined.[1]
McMath had been identified as an aspirant to the Senate as early as his 1949 inauguration as Governor.[2] He announced a campaign against Senator John L. McClellan in early 1954; McClellan, who openly supported Cherry in 1952,[3] had not faced a serious political challenge since he won the seat in 1942.[2]
McMath began the campaign for the nomination aggressively, while McClellan made every effort to ignore his opposition and emphasize his own record as Senator,[1] including the provision of various public works and the preservation of federal installations within Arkansas.[5] Two other candidates entered the race without directly challenging McClellan. Paul Chambers, a Democratic National Committeeman, engaged in a "questio-thon," conducting interviews on various local radio stations. Leonard Ellis ran no active campaign.[5]
The campaign shaped up as personally as well as ideologically bitter; McMath attacked McClellan for his age and ideological conservatism, charging that the Senator favored "the corporations over the people" and was in the thrall of "Texas oil millionaires."[2] He doubled down on these accusations by calling McClellan "an errand boy for the big interests." McMath himself was identified as "a thoroughgoing Fair Dealer;" he had campaigned for President Truman throughout the South in 1948 (despite Dixiecrat opposition) and received Truman's endorsement in his failed 1952 re-election campaign.[2] In particular, he criticized two key votes McClellan had cast: one to grant title to oil tidelands to individual coastal states (thus depriving Arkansas of access) and one to provide Germany funds to repay its pre-World War II bonds.[5]
McMath challenged McClellan to a series of joint debates in mid-April, but McClellan initially declined to respond.[2]
Upon eventually entering the fray in July,[5] McClellan said that McMath's 1952 defeat had ended his career in politics, telling voters that McMath should have "crawl[ed] into a political hole" after being repudiated by 100,000 votes.[1] McClellan also criticized McMath's record as Governor, blaming him for a $4,500,000 net increase in utility rates.[1] Governor Cherry, who faced broad opposition for his second term, initially vowed to stay out of the contest but campaigned with McClellan in the final stages.[3][4]
McMath, who relied on support from the state's organized labor movement, faced a setback late in the campaign when several former labor leaders criticized him for "playing labor for a sucker" in a newspaper advertisement.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | John L. McClellan (inc.) | 164,905 | 56.31% | |
| Democratic | Sid McMath | 127,941 | 43.69% | |
| Total votes | 292,846 | 100.00% | ||
McClellan was unopposed in the general election.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | John L. McClellan (inc.) | 291,058 | 100.00% | |
| Total votes | 291,058 | 100.00% | ||
