1962 South Carolina Senate election

1962 South Carolina Senate election

← 1960 November 6, 1962 1964 →
24 of 46 seats in the South Carolina Senate (23 regular, 1 special) 24 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Edgar Allan Brown — Party Democratic Republican Leader since 1942 — Leader's seat Barnwell Co. — Last election 23 seats Did not contest Seats before 46 0 Seats won 24 0 Seats after 46 0 Popular vote 25,805[a] 13,857 Percentage 65.04% 34.92%
District results      New Democratic senator elected      Democratic incumbent senator re-elected Asterisk (Georgetown Co.): Special election.
President before election Edgar Allan Brown Democratic Elected President Edgar Allan Brown Democratic

An election in the U.S. state of South Carolina was held on November 6, 1962 to elect 24 of the South Carolina Senate's 46 members to four-year terms. Twenty-three seats were regularly scheduled, and one seat in Georgetown County was a special election triggered by the resignation of a member. Every seat up for election was won by the nominee of the Democratic Party. After not fielding any legislative candidates in the 1960 general election, Republicans contested two Senate seats, in Charleston County and Florence County. Both Republicans lost to Democrats, and the remaining 22 seats were noncompetitive. For most seats, the real contests were the Democratic primary elections, with a first round on June 12 and a runoff election on June 26.

Of the 23 senators up for re-election, three declined to seek another term, leaving four open seats when including the special election in Georgetown County. In the first round of the Democratic primary, twelve senators won renomination outright, seven of whom were unopposed. Six senators lost renomination outright, and two incumbent senators advanced to a runoff.^[1] Both lost renomination in the second round.^[2] The Democratic primaries resulted in a total of twelve new faces in the Senate. Longtime incumbent president pro tempore Edgar Allan Brown was re-elected to his post at the beginning of the new legislative session on Tuesday, January 8, 1963.^[3]

The elections were held concurrently with those for U.S. Senate, U.S. House, governor, state house, and numerous other state and local elections.