1956 United States Senate election in Georgia

The 1956 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 6, 1956. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Walter F. George did not run for re-election.^[1]^[2]

The open race for George's seat was the final chapter in the political rivalry between former Georgia Governor Herman Talmadge and Melvin Thompson which had begun a decade earlier with the three governors controversy. Talmadge soundly won the primary, ending Thompson's political career.

At this time, Georgia was a one-party state. Talmadge's victory in the September 12 primary was tantamount to election, and he was unopposed in the general election.

Democratic primary

County unit system

From 1917 until 1962, the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Georgia used a voting system called the county unit system to determine victors in statewide primary elections.^[3]

The system was ostensibly designed to function similarly to the Electoral College, but in practice the large ratio of unit votes for small, rural counties to unit votes for more populous urban areas provided outsized political influence to the smaller counties.^[4]^[5]

Under the county unit system, the 159 counties in Georgia were divided by population into three categories. The largest eight counties were classified as "Urban", the next-largest 30 counties were classified as "Town", and the remaining 121 counties were classified as "Rural". Urban counties were given 6 unit votes, Town counties were given 4 unit votes, and Rural counties were given 2 unit votes, for a total of 410 available unit votes. Each county's unit votes were awarded on a winner-take-all basis.^[4]^[5]

Candidates were required to obtain a majority of unit votes (not necessarily a majority of the popular vote), or 206 total unit votes, to win the election. If no candidate received a majority in the initial primary, a runoff election was held between the top two candidates to determine a winner.^[6]

Candidates

Herman Talmadge, former Governor
Melvin E. Thompson, former Governor

Results

Democratic primary^[7]^[8]^[9]
Candidate	Votes	%	CUV
Herman Talmadge	498,327	80.31	410
Melvin E. Thompson	122,152	19.69	0
Write-ins	13	0.00	0

General election

Results

1956 U.S. Senate election in Georgia^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Herman Talmadge	541,094	99.97%	0.03
	Write-in	All others	173	0.03%
Total votes			306,250	100.00%
	Democratic hold		Swing

References

^ Cockfield, Jamie H. (2019). A Giant From Georgia: The Life of U.S. Senator Walter F. George, 1878-1957. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 452–453. ISBN 978-0-88146-676-8.
^ "Walter F. George (1878-1957)".
^ "County Unit System". Georgia County Clerks Association. Archived from the original on May 31, 2008. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
^ ^a ^b "Eugene Talmadge". The Jim Crow Encyclopedia. The African American Experience. Archived from the original on January 23, 2015. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
^ ^a ^b "County Unit System, eh?". Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies. October 6, 2011. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
^ Buchanan, Scott (June 13, 2017). "County Unit System". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 8, 2020.
^ Congressional Quarterly 1998, p. 114.
^ "GA US Senate – D Primary, 1956". Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
^ Georgia Register 1956, pp. 755–758.
^ Congressional Quarterly 1998, p. 84.
^ Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives (September 15, 1958). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1956" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office.
^ "GA US Senate, 1956". Our Campaigns. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
^ America Votes 5, p. 82.
^ Georgia Register 1956, pp. 786–789.

Bibliography

Congressional Elections, 1946-1996. Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998. ISBN 1-56802-248-4.
Scammon, Richard M., ed. (1964). America Votes 5: a handbook of contemporary American election statistics, 1962. Washington, D.C.: Governmental Affairs Institute.
Compiled by Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, Director (1956). Georgia's Official Register, 1955-1956 (PDF). Atlanta, Georgia: State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History.