1954 United States Senate election in South Carolina

1954 United States Senate election in South Carolina

← 1948 November 2, 1954 1956 (special) →

Candidate Strom Thurmond (write-in) Edgar A. Brown Party Democratic Democratic Popular vote 143,444 83,525 Percentage 63.13% 36.76%

Thurmond:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90% Brown:      50-60%      60-70%      >90%

U.S. senator before election Charles E. Daniel Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond Democratic

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v t e

The 1954 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 1954. Senator Burnet R. Maybank did not face a primary challenge in the summer and was therefore renominated as the Democratic nominee for the election in the fall. However, his death on September 1 left the Democratic Party without a nominee, and the executive committee nominated state Senator Edgar A. Brown as their replacement candidate. Many South Carolinians were outraged by the party's decision to forgo a primary election, and former Governor Strom Thurmond entered the race as a write-in candidate. He easily won the election and became the first U.S. senator to be elected by a write-in vote in an election where other candidates had ballot access (William Knowland of California in 1946 was the first Senate candidate to win via write-in, but the ballots in that election were blank with no candidates listed, so essentially every candidate was running a write-in campaign).^[1] A Senate election where the victor won by a write-in campaign did not happen again until 2010.