1916 United States Senate election in Indiana

none 1916 United States Senate special election in Indiana March 2026 September 2023 1916 United States Senate election in Indiana Indiana presidential no 1911 United States Senate election in Indiana 1911 1922 United States Senate election in Indiana 1922 November 7, 1916 150x150px File:Harry S. New in 1924 (cropped).jpg Harry New Republican Party (United States) 337,089 47.77% File:JohnWKern.jpg John W. Kern Democratic Party (United States) 325,588 46.14% 1916 United States Senate election in Indiana results map by county.svg 250px County resultsNew: #ffb2b2 40–50% #e27f7f 50–60% #d75d5d 60–70%Kern: #a5b0ff 40–50% #7996e2 50–60% #6674de 60–70% U.S. Senator John W. Kern Democratic Party (United States) Harry New Republican Party (United States) The 1916 United States Senate election in Indiana took place on November 7, 1916. Democratic incumbent and Senate majority leader John W. Kern ran for re-election to a second term in office, but he was defeated by Harry S. New, former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Background In 1911, John W. Kern was elected to a six-year term in the United States Senate by the newly elected Indiana General Assembly. Kern, a former state senator and city solicitor of Indianapolis, had been an unsuccessful candidate for governor of Indiana and vice president of the United States in 1908. He was the last Indiana senator to be elected by the legislature prior to the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which mandated direct election of all senators.Roberts 1980 63 In 1912, the Democratic Party won the presidency and narrow control of the Senate. President-elect Woodrow Wilson worked closely with Kern, who was elevated to the role of Democratic conference chairman (and de facto Senate majority leader), to pass his progressive legislative agenda through the Senate.Roberts 1980 63 In January 1915, Wilson announced his campaign for re-election to the presidency in Indianapolis. Contemporary reporting in The New York Times indicated he came at Kern's behest, and Kern was with Wilson continuously during his visit to the state.Roberts 1980 6566 Democratic primary Candidates John W. Kern, incumbent senator since 1911 and Senate majority leader Results 1916 Democratic Senate primaryhttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=455401 Our Campaigns - IN US Senate - D Primary Race - Mar 07, 1916 John W. Kern Democratic Party (United States) 151,931 100.00% 151,931 100.00% Republican primary Candidates Harry Stewart New, former state senator from Indianapolis and former chairman of the Republican National Committee Arthur N. Robinson James E. Watson, former U.S. representative from Rushville Results +Republican primary resultshttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=455403 Our Campaigns - IN US Senate - R Primary Race - Mar 07, 1916PartyCandidateRound 1Round 2Votes%TransferVotes%RepublicanHarry New97,11846.07%+ 3,981101,09952.05%RepublicanJames Watson89,84742.62% + 3,27393,12047.95%RepublicanArthur Robinson23,83511.31%- 23,835Eliminated After losing the primary, Watson ran in the special election for Indiana's other Senate seat caused by the death of Benjamin F. Shively, which he won over Thomas Taggart. Watson would be sworn in as a U.S. senator 3 months before senator-elect New's term began. Progressive primary Candidates John N. Dyer, candidate for U.S. representative in 1912 Results 1916 Progressive Senate primaryhttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=455402 Our Campaigns - IN US Senate - PRG Primary Race - Mar 07, 1916 John N. Dyer Progressive Party (United States, 1912) 7,567 100.00% 7,567 100.00% General election Candidates Ira J. Decker (Socialist Labor) John N. Dyer, candidate for U.S. representative in 1912 (Progressive) Elwood Haynes, metallurgist and automotive pioneer (Prohibition) John W. Kern, incumbent senator since 1911 and Senate majority leader (Democratic) Harry S. New, former state senator from Indianapolis and former chairman of the Republican National Committee (Republican) Joseph Zimmerman (Socialist) Campaign The Democratic campaign in Indiana suffered from disorganization and difficulty fundraising at the state and national level, particularly in comparison to the Republican campaign. For example, when the party tried to induce contributions from county organizations, the chair of the Lake County party organization flatly refused and demanded instead that the state party subsidize its organization.Roberts 1980 64 In his 1918 biography of Kern, aide Claude G. Bowers attributed these problems to the national party's preference to spend money in the Pennsylvania and state of New York.Roberts 1980 64Bowers 1918 379 The state party was also controlled by junior senator Thomas Taggart, who had been an intraparty rival with Kern in patronage disputes and was running for re-election himself.Roberts 1980 6870 Finally, Kern was personally limited from campaigning on his own behalf by periodic illnesses until October 3. (He would ultimately die of illness less than one year after the election.) Instead, his campaign focused on his celebrating his legislative accomplishments, leadership role, and relationship with President Wilson in the press.Roberts 1980 67 The Republican campaign was led by state party chairman Will Hays, whose success would elevate him to national party chair by 1918. Republicans sought to focus on the tariff and foreign policy, questions that were expected to favor their positions in Indiana, but Kern and the Indiana Democratic Party were able to keep the tariff question out of the campaign, instead focusing on progressive domestic legislation and World War I.Roberts 1980 6870 Kern's support for labor legislation, including the Keating–Owen Act, which prohibited child labor, and the Adamson Act, protecting benefits for railroad workers, earned him the uniform support of organized labor. The Indiana Federation of Labor endorsed him, and both Samuel Gompers and Mother Jones campaigned for him in Indiana.Roberts 1980 66 Despite his strong progressive record, Kern may have had some difficulty attracting progressive voters who were still aggrieved by his defeat of progressive icon Albert J. Beveridge in 1911 and his continuing criticisms of Theodore Roosevelt.Roberts 1980 6870 Opinions on Wilson's handling of foreign policy were divided, and the large German American vote in Indiana (and to a lesser extent the Irish American vote), which were opposed to potential American support for the British Empire and France in the war, became a focus for both campaigns. Unlike Wilson, the Indiana Democratic Party avoided directly criticizing "hyphenated Americans" for fear of alienating German American votes; Kern himself emphasized his German heritage and praised Wilson for maintaining American neutrality. Some Republicans feared that their own presidential candidate, Charles Evans Hughes, would alienate German Americans by attacking Wilson for alleged weakness or timidity against threats from the German Empire; others worried that the war made Wilson impervious to direct criticism, for fear of appearing pro-German. They focused instead on Wilson's response to the Mexican Revolution and border raids by Pancho Villa.Roberts 1980 6870 In late October, William Jennings Bryan offered to campaign for Kern, who had been Bryan's running mate in 1908. It is unclear why the Kern campaign did not accept the offer, but Bryan's growing association with the temperance movement and the campaign's desire to appease German American brewers, who opposed prohibition of alcohol. Bowers, who complained about the few national speakers who visited Indiana during the campaign, omitted any reference to Bryan's offer in his history of the campaign, although it was preserved in his private papers.Roberts 1980 65 According to historian George C. Roberts, Bowers's complaint was obliquely directed at Wilson. Although he was up for re-election, Wilson ran a front porch campaign, focusing on his management of the neutral American position in World War I and having little enthusiasm for personal partisan campaigning.Roberts 1980 65 Wilson did make one visit to Indiana in October, but his presence was ostensibly nonpartisan, and he explicitly rejected an offer for a "political meeting" during the trip. Results 1916 U.S. Senate election in IndianaClerk of the U.S. House of Representatives 1917 Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 5, 1916 http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electioninfo/1916election.pdf U.S. Government Printing Officehttps://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=267950 Our Campaigns – IN US Senate Race – Nov 06, 1916 www.ourcampaigns.com Republican Party (United States) Harry Stewart New 337,089 47.77% Democratic Party (United States) John W. Kern 325,588 46.14% Socialist Party USA Joseph Zimmerman 21,558 3.06% Prohibition Party (United States) Elwood Haynes 15,598 2.21% Progressive Party (United States, 1912) John N. Dyer 4,272 0.61% Socialist Labor Party (United States) Ira J. Decker 1,562 0.22% 705,667 100.00% Republican Party (United States) Democratic Party (United States) Kern attributed his loss to the defection of German Americans, particularly brewers who had supported Hughes. He similarly attributed his 1909 loss in the Democratic legislative caucus to the opposition of liquor interests.Roberts 1980 6870 Kern outran Taggart in the concurrent special election by eleven votes.Roberts 1980 6870 Aftermath Kern died five months after leaving the Senate. See also 1916 United States Senate elections References Sources Bowers Claude G. Claude G. Bowers https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/72468/pg72468-images.html The Life of John Werth Kern The Hollenbeck Press 1918 Indianapolis Roberts George C. Winter 1980 Woodrow Wilson, John W. Kern and the 1916 Indiana Election: Defeat of a Senate Majority Leader https://www.jstor.org/stable/27547534 Presidential Studies Quarterly 10 1 63–73 JSTOR Indiana 1916 United States Senate