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| Elections in Florida |
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 Government |
The 1950 United States Senate election in Florida was held on November 7, 1950. Incumbent Senator Claude Pepper ran for a third term in office but was defeated in the Democratic primary by U.S. Representative George Smathers, who went on to easily win the general election.
The primary campaign has been described as one of the "most bitter and ugly campaigns in Florida political history." Pepper was targeted for his opposition to incumbent President Harry Truman during the 1948 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Smathers also accused Pepper of ties to communist organizations and the Soviet Union, making this race emblematic of the second Red Scare in American politics.
The general election was low-key, as the Democratic primary was effectively tantamount to election. Smathers defeated Republican John P. Booth in a landslide. After the election, Pepper remained active in politics, mounting an unsuccessful run for Senate again in 1958 and then winning an election to a U.S. House seat in 1962, a position he held until his death in 1989. Smathers served in the Senate until retiring in 1968.
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