1961 United States Senate special election in Texas

The 1961 United States Senate special election in Texas was held on May 27, 1961. The election was held to replace outgoing Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who had been elected Vice President of the United States.

Republican John Tower, who had been the nominee for the regularly scheduled election in 1960, defeated seventy other candidates to become the first Republican to represent Texas in the Senate since Reconstruction in 1877. Tower was also the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate in any former Confederate state.

Because Texas had been a Solid South state, the loss of Johnson's Senate seat would be seen as a stinging defeat for the Kennedy administration and the Democratic Party, given that the Civil Rights Movement was getting off the ground and the increasing sympathy for it amongst increasingly influential liberal Democrats.

One of the Democrats who were defeated in the first round was congressman Jim Wright, who went on to briefly serve as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in the late 1980s.

Primary election

Candidates

Seventy-one candidates were on the ballot for the primary election. At the time, the filing fee for ballot access was only $50.

The primary was held on April 4.

Major candidates

• William A. Blakley (Democrat), incumbent appointee Senator
• Henry B. Gonzalez (Democrat), State Senator from San Antonio
• Maury Maverick Jr. (Democrat), attorney and former State Representative
• John Tower (Republican), political science professor at Midwestern State University and nominee for U.S. Senate in 1960
• Will Wilson (Democrat), Attorney General of Texas
• Jim Wright (Democrat), U.S. Representative from Fort Worth

Minor candidates

None of these candidates received more than 0.5% of the popular vote.

Runoff election

Results

References

1. 1993 United States Senate special election in Texas
2. 1941 United States Senate special election in Texas
3. 1957 United States Senate special election in Texas
4. 2018 United States Senate election in Texas
5. 1960 United States Senate election in Texas
6. 1966 United States Senate election in Texas
7. 1978 United States Senate election in Texas
8. 1948 United States Senate election in Texas
9. 1994 United States Senate election in Texas
10. 2020 United States Senate special election in Arizona
11. 1988 United States Senate election in Texas
12. 1996 United States Senate election in Texas
13. 1942 United States Senate election in Texas
14. 2020 United States Senate election in Texas
15. 2024 United States Senate election in Ohio
16. 1960 United States Senate elections
17. List of special elections to the United States Senate
18. 1958 United States Senate election in Texas
19. List of United States Senate elections
20. 1961 United States House of Representatives elections