1961 United States Senate election

Texas special election
	May 27, 1961
	May 27, 1961
	County results; Tower: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90%; Blakley: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90%; Tie:
U.S. senator before election; William A. Blakley; Democratic	Elected U.S. Senator ; John Tower; Republican

Republican John Tower won a special election to fill the vacancy created by the election to Lyndon Johnson as U.S. vice president.

State	Incumbent			Results	Candidates
State	Senator	Party	Electoral history	Results	Candidates
Texas (Special) (Class 2)	William A. Blakley	Democratic	1957 (Appointed) 1957 (Retired) 1961 (Appointed)	Interim appointee lost election. New senator elected May 27, 1961. Republican gain.	Y John Tower (Republican) 50.58% William A. Blakley (Democratic) 49.42%

Texas (Special)

Republican John Tower, who had been the nominee for the regularly scheduled election in 1960, defeated seventy other candidates to become the first post-Reconstruction Republican to represent Texas in the Senate. Tower was also the first post-Reconstruction Republican to win any state-wide election in Texas, the first to win any popular election in the former Confederacy, and the third to win any election to the Senate from the former confederacy.

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.

Primary election[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	John Tower	327,308	30.93%
	Democratic	William Blakely (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%

Runoff election[2]
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%

References

"TX US Senate - Special Primary". OurCampaigns.com. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
"TX US Senate - Special". OurCampaigns.com. Retrieved 4 April 2020.

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[1] "TX US Senate - Special Primary". OurCampaigns.com. Retrieved 4 April 2020.

[2] "TX US Senate - Special". OurCampaigns.com. Retrieved 4 April 2020.

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1961 United States Senate election

Texas (Special)

See also

References