The 1948 United States Senate election in Maine was held on September 13, 1948. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Wallace White did not seek a fourth term in office.
U.S. Representative Margaret Chase Smith defeated the two most recent Governors of Maine, Horace Hildreth and Sumner Sewall, in the Republican primary. In the general election, Smith resoundingly defeated Democrat Adrian Scolten of Portland.
Smith was the first woman ever elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate without first being appointed.[a] Smith's election also made her the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, as well as the first woman to represent the state of Maine in the Senate.[1]
^Hattie Caraway of Arkansas was elected to two terms in the Senate, but she had been appointed first to succeed her dead husband and was an incumbent in each of her elections. In 1938, Gladys Pyle was elected to represent South Dakota in the U.S. Senate for 55 days to complete the term of Peter Norbeck.
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