1944 United States Senate election in Alabama
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 County results Hill: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% 90–100% Posey: 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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The United States Senate election in Alabama of 1944 was held on November 7, 1944.
Incumbent Senator J. Lister Hill was re-elected to a second term in office, defeating Republican John A. Posey.
In 1938, Lister Hill defeated former Senator Thomas Heflin to win the Senate seat vacated by Hugo Black. Like Black, Hill was a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal programs, while Heflin had been supported by the "Big Mule" coalition of Birmingham industrialist and Black Belt planters.[1] In opposition to the New Deal, the Big Mules backed a faction of the Democratic Party headed by Birmingham state senator and corporate lawyer James A. Simpson, who had strong antiunion and anti-New Deal sentiments and family connections to the Woodward Iron Company.[1] Many supporters of Roosevelt and the New Deal in the state, led by Horace C. Wilkinson, Black and former Governor Bibb Graves, had strong ties to the Ku Klux Klan,[1] but Hill was not among them.[2]
Democratic primary
Candidates
- J. Lister Hill, incumbent Senator since 1938
- James Simpson, State Senator from Birmingham[3]
Campaign
The 1944 Democratic primary between incumbent Lister Hill and challenger James Simpson was sharply divided on class and racial issues, with Hill generally considered a relatively liberal Southerner for the time.
Simpson's campaign was backed by major industrial interests, while Hill had the support of the Congress of Industrial Organizations political action committee and attacked Simpson as a "high-priced corporation lawyer" and "a vest pocket edition of Wall Street".[1]
During the campaign, Simpson attacked Hill, utilizing racial divisions "solidly interwound with the most hallowed dogmas of the free market."[4] In March, the conservative and pro-business Alabama magazine featured photographs of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt fraternizing with blacks, an implicit suggestion of the consequences of Hill's liberalism.[1] According to historian Glenn Feldman, the result was a prolonged and ugly campaign. Hill, who had not planned to return to Alabama for the campaign, was forced to return to the state and engage in race baiting to win the election.[4] After 1944, Hill voted consistently against civil rights legislation in the Senate, though he remained loyal to the cause of organized labor.[1]
Both candidates made a statewide radio address on May 1, the eve of the election.[5]
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | J. Lister Hill (Incumbent) | 126,372 | 55.54% | |
| Democratic | James Simpson | 101,176 | 44.46% | |
| Total votes | 227,548 | 100.00% | ||
General election
Candidates
- J. Lister Hill, incumbent Senator since 1938 (Democratic)
- Hollis B. Parrish (Prohibition)
- John A. Posey (Republican)
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | J. Lister Hill (Incumbent) | 202,604 | 81.78% | ||
| Republican | John A. Posey | 41,983 | 16.95% | ||
| Prohibition | Hollis B. Parrish | 3,162 | 1.28% | ||
| Turnout | 247,749 | ||||
| Democratic hold | |||||
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Feldman, Glenn (August 2009). "Southern Disillusionment with the Democratic Party: Cultural Conformity and "The Great Melding" of Racial and Economic Conservatism in Alabama during World War II". Journal of American Studies. 43 (2): 199–230. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
- ↑ "Lister Hill's political career recaptured in wife's letters, diary". al.com. The Associated Press. November 14, 2010. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
- ↑ Hamilton, Virginia Van der Veer (March 13, 2007). "Hill, J. Lister". Encyclopedia of Alabama. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
[Hill] handily turned back challengers in four Democratic primaries (at the time equivalent to election), defeating James Simpson in 1944, Lawrence McNeil in 1950, and John Crommelin in 1956 and 1962.
- 1 2 Getman-Pickering, Aaron (2016). "The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Model for America's New Conservatism". Vulcan Historical Review. 20: 206–08. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
Lister Hill's Senate run in 1944 against James Simpson is oft-cited as evidence of Alabama's liberalism in the 1940's. Feldman finds it the opposite; what should have been an easy victory for Hill turned into a prolonged and ugly campaign. Simpson used race "solidly interwound with the most hallowed dogmas of the free market," to curry favor, and Hill, who had not planned to return to Alabama to campaign, was forced to race bait to win re-election.
, reviewing Feldman, Glenn (2015). The Great Melding: War, the Dixiecrat Rebellion, and the Southern Model for America's New Conservatism. Tuscaloosa, Al.: University of Alabama Press. ISBN 9780817318666. - ↑ Edwards, Bill (May 1, 2019). "Look Back ... to primary election day, 1944". The Anniston Star. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
- ↑ Owen, Marie B. (1947). Alabama Official and Statistical Register, 1947. Montgomery, Alabama: Walker Printing Company. pp. 427–429. Retrieved August 5, 2025.
- ↑ Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives (January 11, 1945). "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 1944" (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office.
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See also: Political party strength in Alabama | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
