The 1948 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 2, 1948. Democratic U.S. representative and future president of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson was elected in an open race to succeed retiring Democratic incumbent W. Lee O'Daniel. Johnson won the Democratic primary over Texas governor Coke R. Stevenson in one of the narrowest and most controversial elections in United States history.
The Democratic primary was held on July 24. Because no candidate received a majority of the vote, Johnson and Stevenson advanced to a run-off election on August 28 to determine the winner. In an era in which the Democratic nomination was considered tantamount to election, the run-off was sharply contested between the liberal Johnson and the more conservative Stevenson. Johnson was officially declared the winner by 87 votes; after a series of legal challenges by the Stevenson campaign and recount efforts, the Texas Democratic Party state committee confirmed Johnson's nomination by a margin of one vote.
The Democratic primary and run-off were marred by accusations of bribery and electoral fraud, in Jim Wells County in particular, which have been corroborated by Johnson biographers including Robert Caro. In Means of Ascent, Caro argues that Johnson's victory was "brazen thievery." The most famous allegation concerns the Box 13 scandal, wherein 202 votes were added to the results for a single precinct in Jim Wells six days after the election, giving Johnson a narrow lead. The case reached the Supreme Court of the United States, where it was denied a hearing on the grounds that the state party held the final decision over party nominations. In later years, testimony by the parties involved indicated that widespread fraud had occurred.
In the general election, Johnson faced businessman and Republican Party activist Jack Porter, who waged an unusually aggressive campaign. Although Johnson won his first term in the Senate in the strongly Democratic state, he defeated Porter by a much closer margin than typical for his party during this era.
Background Like other Southern states between Reconstruction and the 1960s, Texas was a one-party state, with the white population solidly voting Democratic as a legacy of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era.Baum & Haily 1994 p.596 Disputes within the Texas Democratic Party were far more important than disputes between Democrats and Republicans. Starting with the 1944 election, the Democratic Party had been split between the Texas Loyalists, who supported Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, and the Texas Regulars, who opposed them. Though the Texas Regulars had officially disbanded after the 1944 election, the split remained. Stevenson had supported the Texas Regulars in 1944, and in 1948 flirted with supporting the Dixiecrat presidential candidacy of South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond.Baum & Haily 1994 p.597 Johnson had been a Roosevelt supporter and was a member of the Texas Loyalist faction. The acrimonious split in Texas Democrats ensured an unusually bitter primary battle between Johnson and Stevenson.Baum & Haily 1994 pp.596-597
Politics in "the Valley" The area around the Rio Grande valley was popularly known in Texas as "the Valley." In a political sense, the Valley also included several counties to the north.Caro 1990 p. 181 Most of the people in the Valley were Chicanos (Mexican Americans), and the region was often described as feeling more like Mexico than the United States since Spanish was more widely spoken than English, the culture was predominantly Mexican, and most houses were built in the same style as those found just across the border in Mexico.Caro 1990 pp. 181-182 The Valley had the lowest literacy rate in the entire United States, with most of its people being unable to read and write in Spanish, let alone English.Caro 1990 p. 182 The dominant element in the Valley were Anglos (meaning white Texans since in Texas, the term did not necessarily imply English ancestry), who tended to be ranch owners. Most Mexican Americans continued the custom originating in Mexico of accepting leadership from a patrón ("patron") or jefe ("boss"). The Valley was characterized by a feudal political culture in which the Mexican-American tenant farmers and ranch workers were like serfs, and the "bosses" were like feudal barons. In Texas, voting required paying a poll tax. It was common for the wealthy patrones to pay the tax for the Mexican Americans and to order them to vote for the candidate supported by the bosses. The most noteworthy aspect of the Valley's political culture was extensive corruption and voting fraud.Caro 1990 pp. 182-183 To back up their rule, the jefes often appointed their pistoleros (gunmen) as deputy sheriffs who ensured that farmers and workers voted the "right" way by handing out ballots that had already been marked, which they would then place in the ballot boxes.
The most powerful of the Valley's bosses was George Berham Parr, whom the press called "the Duke of Duval."Caro 1990 pp. 184-186 Locally, Parr was known to the Anglos as "George B" and to the Chicanos as Tacuacha ("sly possum").Caro 1990 p. 186 Parr owned much of the land and many of the businesses in the Valley. For instance, the only company allowed to sell beer in Duval County was owned by Parr.Caro 1990 pp. 185-187 Besides Duval County, Parr's influence extended to Jim Wells, Zapata, Webb, La Salle and Starr counties.Caro 1990 p. 187 One of Parr's pistoleros was Luis Salas, known as Indio (meaning Indian, a reference to his Tepehuán descent and dark complexion), a man from Durango, Mexico, who fled to the United States after he had killed a man in a bar brawl. Salas, a burly 6'1" (185 cm) man, known for his great physical strength, ferocious temper and love of violence, was in charge of elections in Precinct 13 in Jim Wells County. As Parr was the first Anglo to treat Salas with respect and paid him well for his services, Salas was extremely loyal.Caro 1990 p. 188
Parr was also a friend of Johnson, as Frank B. Lloyd, the District Attorney (DA) in Alice, Texas recalled: "George and Lyndon were very close. He [Johnson] didn't make public spectacles [of trips to Alice] like some of the politicians did. But there was the telephone."Caro 1990 p. 191 When Johnson first ran for the Senate in 1941, he paid a large sum of money to Parr to obtain the Valley vote.Caro 1990 p. 189 Parr had supported Stevenson during his runs for governor, but in 1944, the two fell out. The commander of an Army Air Forces (AAF) training base in Laredo complained to Stevenson that half his men had been infected with venereal diseases after they visited brothels owned by Parr. AAF leaders asked that the governor appoint an honest district attorney who would crack down on prostitution. Over the objections of Parr, who favored a family friend for the appointment, Stevenson selected one who pursued prostitution-related cases, and Parr never forgave Stevenson.Caro 1990 p. 190 As a congressman, Johnson had long lobbied for a presidential pardon for Parr, who had been convicted of tax evasion in 1932. In February 1946, the newly appointed United States Attorney General, Texan Tom C. Clark, recommended a pardon to President Truman, who granted it on 20 February. Parr believed that Johnson's lobbying had ensured his pardon, which cemented their friendship.
1941 special election In Texas elections, the general rule was "The lead in the runoff always wins."Caro p.309 In Texas Democratic primaries, which were overseen by the party, not the state government, major candidates would "hold out" by delaying reporting their final tallies so they could add additional votes if needed.Caro p.310 That practice favored the side that initially led the runoff because it was difficult for the other side to add enough votes to win without sparking plausible accusations of fraud. One of the few exceptions to that rule was the 1941 special election for Senate. Johnson was a candidate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Morris Sheppard. Governor W. Lee O'Daniel intended to run for the seat and appointed the elderly and infirm Andrew Jackson Houston, son of Sam Houston, as a placeholder. (Houston was in such poor physical condition that the trip to Washington to assume his duties taxed his health, and he died immediately before the special election.) On election day, Saturday, June 28, 1941, O'Daniel and Johnson were the top two finishers. That night, Johnson was ahead by 5,000 votes with 96% of the votes counted. Johnson was declared the winner, congratulations poured in from supporters in Washington, and his campaign staff and volunteers celebrated into the night.Caro 1990 pp. 4-5 In the following days, vote totals shifted until O'Daniel took the lead, and Johnson lost by 1,311 votes. The new totals were announced the Tuesday morning after the election, so late that it was considered shocking.Caro 1990 p. 319 The final result was O'Daniel 175,590 votes (30.49%) and Johnson 174,279 (30.26%).
John Connally believed the O'Daniel campaign waited until Johnson's vote totals were announced so that they knew what they had to beat and then added enough fraudulent votes to his total from areas with the polls controlled by O'Daniel loyalists to give O'Daniel his narrow victory.
As a result of that experience, Johnson prepared for a close runoff by arranging in 1948 for his supporters who controlled votes, including Parr, to withhold their final tallies until the statewide results were announced.Dallek 1991, p. 327. By waiting until the statewide result was in, Johnson would know the figure he had to surpass and so could add as many votes as necessary to his total.
In 1946, Edgar Shelton Jr., a son of George Parr's lawyer who was acquainted with Parr's associates, wrote in his University of Texas master's degree thesis about the possibility of election fraud in Texas runoffs:
Shelton wrote that as of 1946, "This has probably not yet happened."Caro p.321
Democratic primary
Candidates
Jim Alford F.B. Clark Roscoe Collier Frank G. Cortez Arlon Barton "Cyclone" Davis, perennial candidate and son of former Congressman James Davis Lyndon B. Johnson, six-term U.S. Representative from Texas's 10th congressional district (since 1937) Otis Myers George Peddy, former State Representative, attorney, and candidate for U.S. Senate in 1922 Jesse Saunders Terrell Sledge, candidate for U.S. Senate in 1946 Coke R. Stevenson, former Governor of Texas (1941–1947)
Campaign
Stevenson, Johnson, and Peddy were widely regarded as the front runners. On May 16, 1948, a poll showed Stevenson ahead of Johnson 64% to 28%. On 13 June 1948, the Austin American-Statesman spoke of "a withering lack enthusiasm" on the part of voters for the election.Caro 1990 p.213 On June 20, the same poll showed Stevenson with 47% and Johnson with 37%.