1936 United States Senate election in Georgia

none March 2026 September 2023 1936 U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) 1936 Presidential no 1932 United States Senate special election in Georgia 1932 (special) 1942 United States Senate election in Georgia 1942 September 9, 1936 Richard RussellJr.jpg Richard Russell Jr. 344 Democratic Party (United States) 165,111 65.54% Eugene Talmadge circa 1935.jpg Eugene Talmadge 66 Democratic Party (United States) 86,203 34.46% 1936 United States Senate election in Georgia results map by county.svg 240px County resultsRussell: #7996e2ff 50–60% #6674deff 60–70% #584cdeff 70–80% #3933e5ff 80–90%Talmadge: #d3bc5fff 50–60% #c8ab37ff 60–70% #a0892cff 70–80% U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) Richard Russell Jr. Democratic Party (United States) The 1936 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 3, 1936. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. was re-elected to a second term (his first full term) in office after first being elected in the 1932 United States Senate special election in Georgia. As was common at the time, the Democratic candidate ran with no opposition in the general election so therefore the Democratic primary was the real contest, and winning the primary was considered tantamount to election. Democratic primary The Democratic primary election was held on September 9, 1936. The incumbent Senator of Georgia Richard Russell Jr. had become a noted supporter of the New Deal as a Senator, while Governor Eugene Talmadge was a strong opponent of the program. After being prevented by term limits to run again for Governor, Talmadge opted to challenge Russell as an opponent of the New Deal, which by then had grown to be widely popular among Georgians.https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/new-deal/ New Deal New Georgia Encyclopedia 12 July 2024 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.http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm County Unit System Georgia County Clerks Association 8 June 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20080531162547/http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm 31 May 2008 dead 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.http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR4181&chapterID=GR4181-6373&path=encyclopedias/greenwood Eugene Talmadge The Jim Crow Encyclopedia The African American Experience 12 August 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20150123030046/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR4181&chapterID=GR4181-6373&path=encyclopedias%2Fgreenwood 23 January 2015 dead http://rbrl.blogspot.com/2011/10/county-unit-system-eh.html County Unit System, eh? 6 October 2011 Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies 8 June 2020 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. 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.http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/county-unit-system County Unit System Buchanan Scott 13 June 2017 New Georgia Encyclopedia 8 June 2020 Candidates Richard Russell Jr., incumbent U.S. Senator Eugene Talmadge, Governor of Georgia Results Democratic primaryhttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=377214 GA US Senate, 1936 - D Primary Our Campaigns 12 July 2024September 10, 1936 TALMADGE BEATEN IN GEORGIA RACE https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1936-09-10/ed-1/seq-1/ the Associated Press Atlanta July 12, 2024 Chronicling America "Russell 165,111 popular votes; 344 unit votes. Talmadge 86,203 popular votes, 66 unit votes."CandidateVotes%CUV County unit votes Richard Russell Jr. 165,111 65.54 344 Eugene Talmadge 86,203 34.46 66 General election Results 1936 United States Senate election in Georgiahttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=253629 GA US Senate, 1936 Our Campaigns 12 July 2024 Democratic Party (US) Richard Russell Jr. (Incumbent) 285,468 100.00% Democratic Party (US) References 1936 Georgia United States Senate