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, to select the next U.S. senator from the state of South Carolina. Senator Burnet R. Maybank did not face a primary challenge in the summer and was therefore renominated as the Democratic Party's nominee for the election in the fall. However, his death on September 1 left the Democratic Party without a nominee and the executive committee decided to nominate state Senator Edgar A. Brown as their candidate for the election. 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 would not happen again until 2010.