1956 United States Senate election in Georgia

none March 2026 September 2023 1956 U.S. Senate Democratic primary in Georgia Georgia (U.S. state) 1956 Presidential no 1950 United States Senate election in Georgia 1950 1962 United States Senate election in Georgia 1962 September 12, 1956 HermanTalmadge.jpg Herman Talmadge Democratic Party (United States) 410 498,327 80.31% Lt. Gov. M.E. Thompson Edit.jpg Melvin E. Thompson Democratic Party (United States) 0 122,152 19.69% U.S. Senator Walter F. George Democratic Party (United States) Herman Talmadge Democratic Party (United States) 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.A Giant From Georgia: The Life of U.S. Senator Walter F. George, 1878-1957 Cockfield Jamie H. Mercer University Press 2019 978-0-88146-676-8 Macon, Georgia 452–453http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3134 Walter F. George (1878-1957) 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, which, alongside a concurrent election in South Carolina, is the last time a non-incumbent was unopposed in a United States Senate 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.http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm County Unit System Georgia County Clerks Association June 8, 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20080531162547/http://www.georgiacca.com/unit.cfm May 31, 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 August 12, 2013 https://web.archive.org/web/20150123030046/http://testaae.greenwood.com/doc_print.aspx?fileID=GR4181&chapterID=GR4181-6373&path=encyclopedias%2Fgreenwood January 23, 2015 dead https://rbrl.blogspot.com/2011/10/county-unit-system-eh.html County Unit System, eh? October 6, 2011 Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies June 8, 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.https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/county-unit-system County Unit System Buchanan Scott June 13, 2017 New Georgia Encyclopedia June 8, 2020 Candidates Herman Talmadge, former Governor Melvin E. Thompson, former Governor Results Democratic primaryCongressional Quarterly 1998 114https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=498744 GA US Senate – D Primary, 1956 Our Campaigns August 17, 2021Georgia Register 1956 755-758CandidateVotes%CUV County unit votes 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 GeorgiaCongressional Quarterly 1998 84Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives September 15, 1958 Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1956 https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electioninfo/1956election.pdf U.S. Government Printing Officehttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=254000 GA US Senate, 1956 Our Campaigns August 17, 2021America Votes 5 82Georgia Register 1956 786-789 Democratic Party (United States) Herman Talmadge 541,094 99.97% 0.03 173 0.03% 541,267 100.00% Democratic Party (United States) See also 1956 United States Senate elections References 1 Bibliography Congressional Elections, 1946-1996 Washington, D.C. Congressional Quarterly Inc. 1998 1-56802-248-4 Congressional Quarterly 1998 Scammon Richard M. America Votes 5: a handbook of contemporary American election statistics, 1962 Washington, D.C. Governmental Affairs Institute 1964 https://archive.org/details/americavotes5han00scam/mode/2up America Votes 5 Compiled by Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan, Director 1956 Georgia's Official Register, 1955-1956 http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/statreg-images/pdfs/1955.pdf Atlanta, Georgia State of Georgia, Department of Archives and History Georgia Register 1956 Category:Single-candidate United States Senate elections 1956 Georgia United States Senate