1946 Georgia gubernatorial election

1946 Georgia Democratic gubernatorial primary

← 1942 July 17, 1946 1948 (special) →

410 county unit votes
206 unit votes needed to win
 
Nominee Eugene Talmadge James V. Carmichael Eurith D. Rivers
Party Democratic Democratic Democratic
Electoral vote 244 144 22
Popular vote 297,245 313,389 69,489
Percentage 42.96% 45.30% 10.04%

County results
Talmadge:      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%      80-90%
Carmichael:      30-40%      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      70-80%
Rivers:      30-40%      40-50%      50-60%      60-70%      80–90%      >90%

Governor before election

Ellis Arnall
Democratic

Elected Governor

Melvin E. Thompson[a]
Democratic

The 1946 Georgia gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 1946, in order to elect the Governor of Georgia.

Incumbent Democratic Governor Ellis Arnall was term-limited, and ineligible to run for a second term before spending four years out of office (thus in 1950).[2]

As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with only token opposition in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was considered tantamount to election. The Republican Party was utterly unviable in Georgia at the time, and had not even nominated a candidate of its own.[3][4]

The election was won by the Democratic nominee and former Governor Eugene Talmadge, who died weeks later in mid-December, before his scheduled inauguration in January 1947. Talmadge's death created the three governors controversy in Georgia.[5]

  1. ^ "Three Governors Controversy". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 21, 2019.
  2. ^ "1945 Georgia constitution, Article V, Section I, Paragraph I". Georgia State Archive. The Executive power shall be vested in a Governor, who shall hold his office during the term of four years, and until his successor shall be chosen and qualified. The governor serving at the time of the adoption of this Constitution and future Governors shall not be eligible to succeed themselves and shall not be eligible to hold the office until after the expiration of four years from the conclusion of his term in office.
  3. ^ Belvin, William L. (1966). "The Georgia Gubernatorial Primary of 1946". The Georgia Historical Quarterly. 50 (1): 37–53. ISSN 0016-8297. JSTOR 40578545.
  4. ^ Buchanan, Scott (August 12, 2002). "Three Governors Controversy". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  5. ^ Our Georgia History


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