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1960 United States Senate election in South Carolina

The 1960 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 8, 1960 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Popular incumbent Senator Strom Thurmond easily won the Democratic primary and was unopposed in the general election.

This was Thurmond's last Senate race in which he ran as a Democrat; in 1964 he switched parties in opposition to the Democrats' support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and continued to serve until he left office in 2003 and was succeeded by Lindsey Graham (R). As of 2023, this is the last time that Democrats won South Carolina's Class 2 Senate seat.

Democratic primary

Candidates

Robert Beverly Herbert, Columbia lawyer
Strom Thurmond, incumbent Senator since 1954 and candidate for President in 1948

Campaign

Herbert argued that Thurmond's means of opposing the civil rights legislation in the 1950s was unconstructive and instead if he were in the Senate he would express to the country how the blacks were benefited by white rule. Herbert's campaign was little more than token opposition as Thurmond racked up a huge victory and won another term because he did not have an opponent in the general election.