1948 Tasmanian state election
The 1948 Tasmanian state election was held on 21 August 1948 in the Australian state of Tasmania to elect 30 members of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. The election used the Hare-Clark proportional representation system — six members were elected from each of five electorates.


1948 Tasmanian state election
In December 1947, Labor leader Robert Cosgrove had stood down as Premier while he faced charges of bribery, corruption and conspiracy. Cosgrove was acquitted of all charges on 22 February 1948, and was re-elected as Premier by the caucus, taking over from Edward Brooker who had filled in for him for three months. Brooker died on 18 June, four months after handing the premiership back to Cosgrove, and two months prior to the 1948 election.


1948 Tasmanian state election
On 8 July, the Legislative Council voted to grant the House of Assembly two months supply provided an election was called after that time. The election was fought mainly on constitutional issues.


1948 Tasmanian state election
Labor lost its slender one seat majority, winning 15 seats out of 30, although they regained government and Cosgrove remained as Premier after receiving the support of one of the Independent members, Bill Wedd.


1948 Tasmanian state election, Results
Tasmanian state election, 21 August 1948House of Assembly << 1946–1950 >>


1948 Taça de Portugal Final
The 1948 Taça de Portugal Final was the final match of the 1947–48 Taça de Portugal, the 9th season of the Taça de Portugal, the premier Portuguese football cup competition organized by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). The match was played on 4 July 1948 at the Estádio Nacional in Oeiras, and opposed two Primeira Liga sides: Belenenses and Sporting CP. Sporting CP defeated Belenenses 3–1 to claim their fourth Taça de Portugal.


1948 Team Speedway Polish Championship
1948 Team Speedway Polish Championship season was the first season of the contest used to determine the Polish Champion.


1948 Team Speedway Polish Championship, Rules
Composition First and Second Leagues were established after qualifications with three rounds. Every team consisted of three riders, but only one were exposed to every round. Every event consisted of 20 races. Score was 4–3–2–1 and 0 it no-completion heat. Engine capacity was not considered.


1948 Team Speedway Polish Championship, Rules
First, Second and Third League included 9 teams. Matches were played with part three teams. Terms were made up of six drivers plus reserve. Game consisted with 9 races. In one day were played 3 three-cornered matches. For winning match team received 3 points, for second place 2 points and for third 1 point. The drivers with the main squad of a team started in the match three times. The quantity of small points was added up.


1948 Team Speedway Polish Championship, Third League (Local)
Only teams from Greater Poland (Poznań district) participated in Poznań District League. (Poznańska Liga Okręgowa). ZZK Poznań played only in first round and was replaced by Unia Zielona Góra.


1948 Temple Owls football team
The 1948 Temple Owls football team was an American football team that represented Temple University as an independent during the 1948 college football season. In its ninth season under head coach Ray Morrison, the team compiled a 2–6–1 record and was outscored by a total of 182 to 95. The team played its home games at Temple Stadium in Philadelphia.


1948 Tennessee A&I Tigers football team
The 1948 Tennessee A&I Tigers football team was an American football team that represented Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State College as a member of the Midwest Athletic Association (MAA) during the 1948 college football season. In their fifth season under head coach Henry Kean, the Tigers compiled a 5–3–1 record and outscored opponents by a total of 205 to 67.


1948 Tennessee Volunteers football team
The 1948 Tennessee Volunteers (variously Tennessee, UT, or the Vols) represented the University of Tennessee in the 1948 college football season. Playing as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), the team was led by head coach Robert Neyland, in his 17th year, and played their home games at Shields–Watkins Field in Knoxville, Tennessee. They finished the season with a record of four wins, four losses and two ties (4–4–2 overall, 2–3–1 in the SEC).


1948 Tennessee gubernatorial election
The 1948 Tennessee gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1948. Democratic nominee Gordon Browning defeated Republican nominee Roy Acuff with 66.91% of the vote.


1948 Texas A&M Aggies football team
The 1948  Texas A&M Aggies football team represented Texas A&M University during the 1948 college football season.


1948 Texas Longhorns football team
The 1948 Texas Longhorns football team represented the University of Texas in the 1948 college football season. After the season, Tom Landry signed with the New York Yanks of the All-America Football Conference.


1948 Texas Mines Miners football team
The 1948 Texas Mines Miners football team was an American football team that represented Texas School of Mines (now known as University of Texas at El Paso) as a member of the Border Conference during the 1948 college football season. In its third season under head coach Jack Curtice, the team compiled an 8–2–1 record (4–1–1 against Border Conference opponents), finished second in the conference, defeated West Virginia in the 1949 Sun Bowl, and outscored all opponents by a total of 361 to 182.


1948 Texas Tech Red Raiders football team
The 1948 Texas Tech Red Raiders football team represented Texas Tech during the 1948 college football season.


1948 Texas gubernatorial election
The 1948 Texas gubernatorial election was held on November 2, 1948.


1948 Texas gubernatorial election
Incumbent Democratic Governor Beauford H. Jester defeated Republican nominee Alvin H. Lane with 84.72% of the vote.


1948 Texas gubernatorial election, Nominations, Democratic primary
The Democratic primary election was held on July 24, 1948. By winning over 50% of the vote, Jester avoided a run-off which would have been held on August 28, 1948.


1948 Texas gubernatorial election, Nominations, Republican nomination
The Republicans unanimously nominated Alvin H. Lane, attorney, at their convention on August 10, 1948.


1948 The Citadel Bulldogs football team
The 1948 The Citadel Bulldogs football team represented The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina in the 1948 college football season. J. Quinn Decker served as head coach for the third season. The Bulldogs played as members of the Southern Conference and played home games at the new Johnson Hagood Stadium.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes
The 1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes were two tornadoes which struck Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on March 20 and 25, 1948. Both are estimated to have been equivalent to F3 in intensity on the modern Fujita scale of tornado intensity, which was not devised until 1971. The March 20 tornado was the costliest tornado in Oklahoma history at the time.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes
On March 25, meteorologists at the base noticed the extreme similarity between the weather conditions of that day and March 20, and later in the day issued a "tornado forecast", which was verified when a tornado struck the base that evening. This was the first official tornado forecast, as well as the first successful tornado forecast, in recorded history.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, March 20 tornado
Weather forecasting was still crude and prone to large errors in the era before weather satellites and computer modeling. Thunderstorms were not even in the forecast for the evening of March 20. However, around 9:30 pm storms were reported about 20 miles (32 km) to the southwest, and at 9:52 a tornado was sighted near Will Rogers Airport 7 miles (11 km) away, along with a 92-mile-per-hour (148 km/h) wind gust, moving northeast towards the base.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, March 20 tornado
At 10:00, the tornado reached the southwest corner of the base. Illuminated by nearly constant lightning, the tornado was highly visible as it bisected the base, tossing around planes which were parked in the open. The control tower reported a 78-mile-per-hour (126 km/h) wind gust before the windows shattered, injuring several personnel with flying glass. The tornado dissipated at the northeast corner of the base.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, March 20 tornado
The tornado missed most structures on the base, but the damage to expensive military aircraft was substantial. The total damage cost came to around $10 million, or $106 million in 2019 United States dollars. This was the most damaging tornado in Oklahoma up to that date.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Investigation and tornado forecast
In the aftermath of the first tornado, an official inquiry was conducted into the failure to predict the destructive tornado. Air Force investigators came to the conclusion that "due to the nature of the storm it was not forecastable given the present state of the art." They also made recommendations that the meteorological community determine a tornado warning system for the public, as well as a protocol for protecting life and property at military bases.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Investigation and tornado forecast
Both of these investigations began almost immediately. In the days following the tornado, Tinker's meteorologists Major Ernest J. Fawbush and Captain Robert C. Miller investigated surface and upper-air weather data from this and past tornado outbreaks, hoping to be able to identify conditions which were favorable for tornadoes. By March 24, they had compiled several possible tornado indicators, and decided it would be difficult, but possible, to identify large tornado threat areas in the future.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Investigation and tornado forecast
On the morning of March 25, base meteorologists noticed that weather charts for the day were strikingly similar to those before the March 20 tornado. Forecasts issued by the Weather Bureau indicated that almost the same conditions would be present in the evening of March 25 as were present on March 20. In the morning, they issued a forecast for "heavy thunderstorms" effective for 5–6 pm that evening. This would allow the base's commander to alert base personnel that they may institute their brand-new tornado precautions.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Investigation and tornado forecast
As the day wore on, conditions appeared more and more favorable for thunderstorms, and more and more similar to the events of March 20. Weather radar images showed a severe squall line had formed to the west, and weather stations to the west reported cumulonimbus clouds and thunderstorms. In an afternoon meeting, under some pressure from their commanding officer, base meteorologists composed and issued the first official tornado forecast. Although they were aware of the small chance of success, they felt they had no choice, since the conditions were so similar to March 20. Equipment, which could be, was moved to bomb-proof shelters, and base personnel were moved to safer areas.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, March 25 tornado
Although storms were relatively benign up to the point where they reached Tinker, a supercell formed just west of the base, and at around 6 pm a tornado touched down on the base for the second time in six days. This second tornado caused $6 million in damage, or $64 million in 2019 dollars. However, due to precautions enacted because of the tornado forecast, no injuries were reported, and damage totals could have been much higher.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Legacy
The tornado prediction proved to be successful, even if its precision was mostly due to chance. Before this point, the Weather Bureau had a policy against issuing tornado warnings, mainly due to fear of panic by the public, and subsequent complacency if forecasts turned out to be false alarms.


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Legacy
Due to lives and costs saved, Fawbush and Miller continued their tornado forecasts, which verified at quite a high rate over the next three years. At first, they kept their forecasts secret. In the spring and summer of 1949, they issued eighteen forecasts for tornadoes within a 100-square-mile (260 km2) area, and all eighteen proved successful. In the subsequent years, while not explicitly using the word "tornado", the Weather Bureau used the pair's forecasts to predict "severe local storms".


1948 Tinker Air Force Base tornadoes, Legacy
The synoptic pattern which occurred on March 25 later became known as the "Miller type-B" pattern and is recognized as one of the most potent severe weather setups.


1948 Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship
The 1948 Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship was the 58th staging of the Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship since its establishment by the Tipperary County Board in 1887.


1948 Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship
Holycross-Ballycahill won the championship after a 4-10 to 2-04 defeat of Lorrha in the final. It was their first ever championship title.


1948 Titleholders Championship
The 1948 Titleholders Championship was contested from March 18–21 at Augusta Country Club. It was the 9th edition of the Titleholders Championship.


1948 Toledo Rockets football team
The 1948 Toledo Rockets football team was an American football team that represented Toledo University during the 1948 college football season. In their first season under head coach Skip Stahley, the Rockets compiled a 5–6 record, were outscored by their opponents by a combined total of 225 to 206, and defeated Oklahoma City, 27–14, in the third postseason Glass Bowl game.


1948 Toledo Rockets football team
On October 2, 1948, Chuck Hardy set a Toledo school record that still stands with a 100-yard kickoff return against John Carroll. On October 9, 1948, the Rockets renewed the Bowling Green–Toledo football rivalry after a 13-year hiatus. Toledo lost to Bowling Green, 21-6, in the 1948 game. During the 1948 season, a Toledo football game was televised for the first time on WSPD- TV13 (later WTVG). The 1948 team captains were Mardo Hamilton and Mike Carman.


1948 Tongan general election, Electoral system
The Legislative Assembly had seven directly-elected members; three representing Tongatapu and nearby islands, two representing Haʻapai and two representing Vavaʻu and nearby islands. A further seven members were elected by the nobility, seven ministers (including the governors of Haʻapai and Vavaʻu) and a Speaker chosen by the monarch, Sālote Tupou III.


1948 Tongan general election, Electoral system
A new electoral law introduced in 1947 required candidates to be nominated by at least 30 voters and introduced an election deposit of £5, which would be lost if a candidate received less than 20% of the vote.


1948 Tongan general election, Campaign
A total of 29 candidates contested the seven directly-elected seats; twelve in Vavaʻu, ten in Tongatapu and seven in Haʻapai.


1948 Tongan general election, Results
Molitoni Finau was elected as the most-voted for candidate in Tongatapu.


1948 Toronto Argonauts season
The 1948 Toronto Argonauts finished in third place in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union with a 5–6–1 record and failed to make the playoffs. American halfback Ken Whitlock played four games to become the Argonauts first black player.


1948 Toronto municipal election
Municipal elections were held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on January 1, 1948. Robert Hood Saunders was re-elected as mayor in an election that also saw no changes on the Board of Control or City Council.


1948 Toronto municipal election, Toronto mayor
Mayor Robert Hood Saunders faced only Trotskyist Ross Dowson and was easily reelected.


1948 Toronto municipal election, Board of Control
All four members of the Toronto Board of Control were re-elected.


1948 Toronto municipal election, City council
Results taken from the January 2, 1949 Globe and Mail and might not exactly match final tallies. Ward 4 results from January 5, 1948 issue.


1948 Toronto municipal election, Changes
Ward 7 Alderman William Butt died January 10, 1948; Charles Rowntree was appointed replacement January 19.


1948 Toronto municipal election, Changes
Mayor Robert Hood Saunders resigned February 23, 1948 when he was appointed Chairman of Ontario Hydro; Controller Hiram E. McCallum was unanimously appointed Mayor; Ward 7 Alderman E.C. Roelfson was appointed Controller February 24; William Davidson appointed Alderman March 1, 1948.


1948 Tour de France
The 1948 Tour de France was the 35th edition of the Tour de France, taking place from 30 June to 25 July. It consisted of 21 stages over 4,922 km (3,058 mi).


1948 Tour de France
The race was won by Italian cyclist Gino Bartali, who had also won the Tour de France in 1938. Bartali had almost given up during the race, but drew inspiration from a phone call from the Italian prime minister, who asked him to win the Tour de France to prevent civil unrest in Italy after assassination attempt against  Togliatti. Bartali also won the mountains classification, while the team classification was won by the Belgian team.


1948 Tour de France, Innovations and changes
The prize for wearing the yellow jersey was introduced in 1948, sponsored by Les Laines, a French wool company.


1948 Tour de France, Innovations and changes
In 1947, the media had complained that too many cyclists reached the end of the race, so the race was no longer heroic; this may have motivated a new rule between the third and the eighteenth stage, the rider last in the general classification was eliminated.


1948 Tour de France, Innovations and changes
Whereas the 1947 Tour de France had been France-centred, the 1948 race became a more cosmopolitan race.


1948 Tour de France, Innovations and changes
The Tour visited the Saar protectorate for the first time when the 18th stage passed Saarbrücken and Saarlouis. A second visit took place in 1953.


1948 Tour de France, Innovations and changes
The first live television broadcast from the Tour de France was in 1948, when the arrival at the velodrome of Parc des Princes was broadcast live.


1948 Tour de France, Teams
As was the custom since the 1930 Tour de France, the 1948 Tour de France was contested by national and regional teams.


1948 Tour de France, Teams
After there had not been an official Italian team allowed in the previous edition, the Italians were back. The Italian cyclists were divided between Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi. Both argued in the preparation of the race about who would be the team leader. The Tour organisation wanted to have both cyclists in the race, so they allowed the Italians and Belgians to enter a second team.


1948 Tour de France, Teams
In the end, Coppi refused to participate, and Bartali became the team leader.


1948 Tour de France, Teams
The organisation still allowed the Italians and Belgians to enter a second team, but they were to be composed of young cyclists, and were named the Italy Cadets and the Belgium Aiglons.


1948 Tour de France, Teams
The Tour organisation invited the Swiss to send a team, as they wanted Ferdinand Kübler, the winner of the 1948 Tour de Suisse, in the race. Kübler refused this because he could earn more money in other races. When the brothers Georges and Roger Aeschlimann announced that they wanted to join the race, they were quickly accepted, especially because they were from Lausanne, where the Tour would pass through. They were put in a team with eight non-French cyclists living in France, and were named the Internationals.


1948 Tour de France, Teams
Twelve teams of ten cyclists entered the race, consisting of 60 French cyclists, 24 Italian, 22 Belgian, 6 Dutch, 4 Luxembourgian, 2 Swiss, 1 Polish and 1 Algerian cyclist.


1948 Tour de France, Route and stages
Bartali's three stage wins in a row was the last time that happened, until Mario Cipollini achieved four in a row in 1999. There were five rest days, in Biarritz, Toulouse, Cannes, Aix-les-Bains and Mulhouse. The highest point of elevation in the race was 2,556 m (8,386 ft) at the summit tunnel of the Col du Galibier mountain pass on stage 14.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
As the Italian team had not entered the Tours de France of 1939 and 1947, it was the first Tour de France for Bartali since his victory ten years before in 1938. His results in the Giro d'Italia had not been well, and it was not thought that Bartali could compete for the win.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
Bartali however won the sprint in the first stage, and thanks to the bonification of one minute for the winner, he was leading the race. After that, the Italian team took a low profile in the race. In the second stage, Bartali lost the lead already; although his teammate Vincenzo Rossello won the stage, Belgian Jan Engels took over the yellow jersey.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
In the third stage, a group escaped and built up a lead of almost 14 minutes. Among that group was Louison Bobet, and as he was the best-placed cyclist in that group he became the next leader. Also in that group was Roger Lambrecht; when Lambrecht again was able to be in the first group in the fourth stage, he took the lead, becoming the fourth rider in four stages to don the yellow jersey. Lambrecht kept it in the next stage, but after Bobet won the sixth stage, Bobet took back the lead, and the yellow jersey made him confident. In the Pyrenées, Bartali won both stages in a sprint, but Bobet was near and became the hero of the French spectators.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
After the ninth stage, Bobet had built up a lead of more than nine minutes. In the tenth stage, he lost time, and Belgian cyclist Roger Lambrecht reduced the margin to 29 seconds. After the eleventh stage, Bobet was still in the lead, but was having problems, and after he fainted at the finish, he wanted to give up. After a meal, massage and sleeping, he changed his mind, and won the twelfth stage.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
After the twelfth stage, Bartali was 20 minutes behind. Bartali thought about quitting the tour, but was persuaded to race on. That night, Bartali received a phone call while he was in bed. Alcide De Gasperi, prime minister of Italy, from the Christian Democratic party, told him that a few days earlier Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the Italian Communist Party, had been shot, and Italy might be on the edge of a civil war.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
De Gasperi asked Bartali to do his best to win a stage, because the sport news might distract people from the politics. Bartali replied that he would do better, and win the race. The next day, Bartali won stage 13 with a large margin. In the general classification, he jumped to second place, trailing by only 66 seconds.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
In the fourteenth stage, Bartali and Bobet rode together over the Galibier and the Croix de Fer, but Bartali had been saving his energy, and left Bobet and every body else behind on the Col de Porte. Bartali won again, and took over the yellow jersey as leader of the general classification. Bobet was now in second place, eight minutes behind. The next stage, stage 15, was also won by Bartali.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
The sixteenth stage was not won by Bartali, but because his direct competitors lost time, he increased his lead to 32 minutes. Bartali lost minutes in the time trial in stage 17, but his lead was never endangered.


1948 Tour de France, Race overview
With each stage win of Bartali (seven in total), the Italian excitement about the Tour de France increased, and the political tensions quieted.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The time that each cyclist required to finish each stage was recorded, and these times were added together for the general classification. If a cyclist had received a time bonus, it was subtracted from this total; all time penalties were added to this total. The cyclist with the least accumulated time was the race leader, identified by the yellow jersey.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The budget of the Tour de France in 1948 was 45 million Francs, from which one third was provided by private enterprises. In total, 7 million Francs of prizes were awarded in the 1948 Tour de France. Of these, 600.000 Francs were given to Bartali for winning the general classification.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
Bartali is the only cyclist to win two Tours de France ten years apart. Of the 120 cyclists, 44 finished the race.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
Points for the mountains classification were earned by reaching the mountain tops first.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
There were two types of mountain tops: the hardest ones, in category A, gave 10 points to the first cyclist, the easier ones, in category B, gave 5 points to the first cyclist.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The team classification was calculated by adding the times in the general classification of the best three cyclists per team.


1948 Tour de France, Classification leadership and minor prizes
The Souvenir Henri Desgrange was given in honour of Tour founder Henri Desgrange in the opening few kilometres of stage 1 at the summit of the Côte de Picardie in Versailles, Paris. This prize was won by Roger Lambrecht. The Tour de France in 1948 for the first time had a special award for the best regional rider. This was won by third-placed Guy Lapébie.


1948 Tour de France, Aftermath
The 1948 Tour de France first showed the strengths of Louison Bobet. Bobet would be the first rider to win three consecutive Tours de France, from 1953 to 1955. After the race, the Italian team manager Alfredo Binda said about Bobet: "If I would have directed Bobet, he would have won the Tour."


1948 Tour de France, Aftermath
Coppi, who had not competed in the 1948 Tour de France because of his bad relationship with Bartali, would enter and win the 1949 Tour de France.


1948 Tour de Romandie
The 1948 Tour de Romandie was the second edition of the Tour de Romandie cycle race and was held from 6 June to 9 June 1948. The race started and finished in Geneva. The race was won by Ferdinand Kübler.


1948 Tour de Suisse
The 1948 Tour de Suisse was the 12th edition of the Tour de Suisse cycle race and was held from 12 June to 19 June 1948. The race started and finished in Zürich. The race was won by Ferdinand Kübler.


1948 Tour of Flanders
The 32nd running of the Tour of Flanders cycling classic was held on Sunday, 18 April 1948. Belgian Briek Schotte won the race in a four-man sprint. It was Schotte's second win in the Tour of Flanders, after 1942. 265 riders, of which 50 non-Belgians, started the race, an all-time record. 85 of them finished.


1948 Tour of Flanders, Route
The race started in Ghent and finished in Wetteren – totaling 257 km. The course featured three categorized climbs:


1948 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regional election
The Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regional election of 1948 took place on 28 November 1948. It was the first election ever. Proportional representation was used.


1948 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regional election
Under provisions of the autonomy laws, the Provincial Council of Trento and the Provincial Council of Bolzano were established as sections of the Regional Council.


1948 Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol regional election
The Christian Democracy and the South Tyrolean People's Party won the election.


1948 Tulane Green Wave football team
The 1948 Tulane Green Wave football team represented Tulane University as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) during the 1948 college football season. Led by third-year head coach Henry Frnka, the Green Wave played their home games at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Tulane finished the season with an overall record of 9–1 and a mark of 5–1 in conference play, placing third in the SEC.


1948 Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team
The 1948 Tulsa Golden Hurricane football team represented the University of Tulsa during the 1948 college football season. In their third year under head coach Buddy Brothers, the Golden Hurricane compiled a 0–9–1 record, 0–1–1 against conference opponents, and finished in fourth place in the Missouri Valley Conference.


1948 U.S. National Championships (tennis)
The 1948 U.S. National Championships (now known as the US Open) was a tennis tournament that took place on the outdoor grass courts in the United States. The men's and women's singles events as well as the mixed doubles were held at the West Side Tennis Club, Forest Hills in New York City, while the men's and women's doubles events were played at the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. The tournament ran from 10 September until 19 September. It was the 68th staging of the U.S. National Championships, and the fourth Grand Slam tennis event of the year. Pancho Gonzales and Margaret Osborne duPont won the singles titles.


1948 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Men's doubles
Gardnar Mulloy /  Bill Talbert defeated  Frank Parker /  Ted Schroeder 1–6, 9–7, 6–3, 3–6, 9–7


1948 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Women's doubles
Louise Brough /  Margaret Osborne duPont defeated  Patricia Todd /  Doris Hart 6–4, 8–10, 6–1


1948 U.S. National Championships (tennis), Finals, Mixed doubles
Louise Brough /   Tom Brown defeated  Margaret Osborne duPont /  Bill Talbert 6–4, 6–4


1948 U.S. National Championships – Men's Singles
Pancho Gonzales defeated Eric Sturgess 6–2, 6–3, 14–12 in the final to win the Men's Singles tennis title at the 1948 U.S. National Championships.


1948 U.S. National Championships – Men's Singles, Seeds
The tournament used two lists of eight players for seeding the men's singles event; one for U.S. players and one for foreign players. Pancho Gonzales is the champion; others show the round in which they were eliminated.


1948 U.S. National Championships – Women's Singles
Third-seeded Margaret Osborne duPont defeated Louise Brough 4–6, 6–4, 15–13 in the final to win the Women's Singles tennis title at the 1948 U.S. National Championships.


1948 U.S. National Championships – Women's Singles, Seeds
The seven seeded U.S. players are listed below. Margaret Osborne duPont is the champion; others show in brackets the round in which they were eliminated.


1948 U.S. Open (golf)
The 1948 U.S. Open was the 48th U.S. Open, held June 10–12 at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, California, northwest of Los Angeles. Ben Hogan won the first of his four U.S. Open titles at the course that became known as "Hogan's Alley," as it was his third win at Riviera in less than 18 months. He had won the Los Angeles Open at the course in early 1947 and 1948. It was the third of Hogan's nine major titles; he had won his second PGA Championship a few weeks earlier. He was only the second to win both titles in the same year, joining Gene Sarazen in 1922. Later winners of both were Jack Nicklaus in 1980 and Tiger Woods in 2000.


1948 U.S. Open (golf)
Although Sam Snead held the lead by a stroke after 36 holes with a record 138, Hogan dominated the final two rounds, shooting 68-69 on Saturday for a total of 276 (−8), two shots ahead of runner-up Jimmy Demaret. Hogan decimated the U.S. Open scoring record (281 by Ralph Guldahl in 1937) by five strokes, and his three rounds in the 60s was a tournament first. The scoring record stood for 19 years, until bested by a stroke by Jack Nicklaus in 1967. Hogan's 8-under-par set a U.S. Open record that stood until 2000, when it was broken by Tiger Woods (12-under, broken by Rory McIlroy in 2011 at 16-under).


1948 U.S. Open (golf)
Eight months later, Hogan and his wife were involved in a serious automobile accident, a head-on collision with a Greyhound bus in west Texas. The injuries he sustained prevented a defense of his title in 1949 while he recovered. Hogan returned to competition and won the U.S. Open in 1950, 1951, and 1953. (He led after 36 holes in 1952, but finished third.)


1948 U.S. Open (golf)
Ted Rhodes became the first African-American to play in the U.S. Open since 1913. He opened with 70, made the cut, and finished in 51st place.


1948 U.S. Open (golf)
This was the first U.S. Open played on the West Coast; the first in the western U.S. was a decade earlier, in 1938 near Denver. The first major played on the West Coast was the PGA Championship in 1929, played at Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles. At the time, the course at Riviera was the longest ever for a U.S. Open at 7,020 yards (6,419 m).


1948 U.S. Open (golf)
Babe Didrikson Zaharias became the first woman to attempt to qualify for the U.S. Open, but her application was rejected by the USGA. They stated that the event was intended to be open to men only.


1948 U.S. Women's Open
The 1948 U.S. Women's Open was the third U.S. Women's Open, held August 12–15 at Atlantic City Country Club in Northfield, New Jersey.


1948 U.S. Women's Open
Babe Zaharias won the first of her three U.S. Women's Open titles, eight strokes ahead of runner-up Betty Hicks. It was the fifth of ten major championships for Zaharias.


1948 U.S. Women's Open
The U.S. Women's Open returned to the course in 1965 and 1975.


1948 UCI Road World Championships
The 1948 UCI Road World Championships took place in Valkenburg, the Netherlands.


1948 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race
The men's road race at the 1948 UCI Road World Championships was the 15th edition of the event. The race took place on Sunday 22 August 1948 in Valkenburg, the Netherlands. The race was won by Briek Schotte of Belgium.


1948 UCI Road World Championships – Men's road race
The race was strongly influenced by rivalry between Fausto Coppi and Gino Bartali, among the favourite athletes participating. The two only focused on controlling each other, not pursuing the victory. They were later heavy criticised in Italy for this. The Italian Cycling Federation even suspended them from competitive activity for three months.


1948 UCI Track Cycling World Championships
The 1948 UCI Track Cycling World Championships were the World Championship for track cycling. They took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands from 23 to 29 August 1948. Five events for men were contested, 3 for professionals and 2 for amateurs.


1948 UCLA Bruins football team
The 1948 UCLA Bruins football team was an American football team that represented the University of California, Los Angeles during the 1948 college football season. In their fourth year under head coach Bert LaBrucherie, the Bruins compiled a 3–7 record (2–6 conference) and finished in eighth place in the Pacific Coast Conference.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year
The 1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year was the 23rd year of greyhound racing in the United Kingdom and Ireland.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Summary
The annual totalisator turnover was £99,449,342, which although the fourth highest ever recorded was also the second consecutive drop since 1946. The minimum betting stake on the track totalisator was increased from two to four shillings but quickly changed back following a widespread slump. The government ban on mid-week racing continued.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Summary
Western Post and Priceless Border claimed the big Derby races but Local Interprize was the star of the year, after he claimed four classic competitions. They were the Gold Collar, Scurry Gold Cup, Welsh Greyhound Derby and the Cesarewitch.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
A greyhound called Narrogar Ann from a litter of six, out of the bitch Winnie of Berrow (winner of the 1944 Eclipse) came to prominence when successful in the Western Two year Old Produce Stakes. Narrogar Ann trained by Joe Farrand at Oxford Stadium beat littermates Narrogar Dusty and Narrogar Tommy who finished second and third respectively. Narrogar Ann would soon move to Leslie Reynolds at Wembley.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Competitions
Local Interprize won the Laurels and Welsh Derby, in the latter he recorded a seven length final win in a new track record time defeating a field that included the Scottish Greyhound Derby champion Western Post, an 84lb fawn and white dog. Local Interprize then won the Scurry final by eight lengths before losing out to Good Worker trained by former Surrey cricketer Jack Daley, in the Laurels. Local Interprize finished the year by claiming a remarkable fourth classic when picking up the Cesarewitch trophy on 23 October.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Tracks
Rayleigh Weir Stadium in Southend-on-Sea was one of seven known track to open, three of them were in Ireland. Breck Park Stadium in Liverpool, closed following a devastating fire and fire also destroyed most of the stands at Long Eaton Stadium. The total number of tracks in the United Kingdom with a betting licence was 209, of which 77 were affiliated to the National Greyhound Racing Society and raced under National Greyhound Racing Club rules.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, News
On 1 April, Fred Trevillion,  Arthur Hancock (head kennel-man) and Trev's Perfection left on the Queen Mary for Raynham Park, Raynham, Massachusetts in the United States, where the dog was expected to make headlines. The venture was a failure and in five races he did not win one and returned to England in July. Sir William Gentle died.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Ireland
The Irish Greyhound Derby offered a record £1,000 first prize and attracted the Frank Davis trained Western Post; Davis put him with Paddy Moclair for the duration of the event. Moclair had originally bought the dog at the Limerick sales for £240 before selling him to Davis for £2,000. The fawn and white dog became the first winner of the Scottish and Irish Derby.


1948 UK & Ireland Greyhound Racing Year, Ireland
The Greyhound Racing Association set up the Kingsfurze breeding establishment at Naas in County Kildare, the seven acre grounds included a house, cottage and 15 runs. The greyhounds would transfer to training establishments within the GRA as soon as they were older enough.


1948 UMass Redmen football team
The 1948 UMass Redmen football team represented the University of Massachusetts Amherst in the 1948 college football season as a member of the Yankee Conference. The team was coached by Thomas Eck and played its home games at Alumni Field in Amherst, Massachusetts. UMass finished the season with a record of 3–4–1 overall and 1–1 in conference play.


1948 USC Trojans baseball team
The 1948 USC Trojans baseball team represented the University of Southern California in the 1948 NCAA baseball season. The team was coached by co-head coaches Sam Barry and Rod Dedeaux.


1948 USC Trojans baseball team
The Trojans won the College World Series, defeating future U.S. President George H. W. Bush and the Yale Bulldogs in the championship series.


1948 USC Trojans football team
The 1948 USC Trojans football team represented the University of Southern California (USC) in the 1948 college football season. In their seventh year under head coach Jeff Cravath, the Trojans compiled a 6–3–1 record (4–2 against conference opponents), finished in third place in the Pacific Coast Conference, and outscored their opponents by a combined total of 142 to 87.


1948 USSR Chess Championship
The 1948 Soviet Chess Championship was the 16th edition of USSR Chess Championship. Held from 10 November to 13 December 1948 in Moscow. The tournament was won by David Bronstein and Alexander Kotov. Mikhail Botvinnik did not participate in the championship again, as he had recently won the world title in the tournament at The Hague and Moscow. In fact he was to take a three-year break, towork on his doctorate. Quarterfinal tournaments were played in the cities of Tbilisi and Yaroslavl; and semifinals in Sverdlovsk, Leningrad and Moscow.


1948 United States House of Representatives election in Puerto Rico
The election for Resident Commissioner to the United States House of Representatives took place on November 2, 1948, the same day as the larger Puerto Rican general election and the United States elections, 1948.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections
The 1948 United States House of Representatives elections were elections for the United States House of Representatives in 1948 which coincided with President Harry S. Truman's election to a full term. Truman had campaigned against a "do-nothing"' Republican Party Congress that had opposed his initiatives and was seen as counterproductive. The Democratic Party regained control of both the House and Senate in this election. For Democrats, this was their largest gain since 1932. These were the last elections until 1980 when a member of a political party other than the Democrats, Republicans, or an Independent had one or more seats in the chamber. As of 2021, this is the last time the Democrats gained more than 50 seats in an election.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections, Illinois
Illinois redistricted its at-large seat into an additional geographical district for a total of 26, changing boundaries across the state and moving several seats from downstate into the Chicago suburbs.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in California
The United States House of Representatives elections in California, 1948 was an election for California's delegation to the United States House of Representatives, which occurred as part of the general election of the House of Representatives on November 2, 1948. Democrats picked up three districts while losing two for a net gain of one seat.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in California, Results
Final results from the Clerk of the House of Representatives:


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina
The 1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina were held on November 2, 1948 to select six Representatives for two-year terms from the state of South Carolina. Four incumbents were re-elected, but John J. Riley of the 2nd congressional district was defeated in the Democratic primary by Hugo S. Sims, Jr. The seat remained with the Democrats along with the open seat in the 3rd congressional district and the composition of the state delegation remained solely Democratic.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 1st congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman L. Mendel Rivers of the 1st congressional district, in office since 1941, defeated Republican challenger W.T. Baggott.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 2nd congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman John J. Riley of the 2nd congressional district, in office since 1945, was defeated in the Democratic primary by Hugo S. Sims, Jr. who also defeated Republican W. Edward Moore in the general election.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 3rd congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman W.J. Bryan Dorn of the 3rd congressional district, in office since 1947, chose to not seek re-election and instead made an unsuccessful run for Senator. James Butler Hare won the Democratic primary and defeated Republican D.F. Merill in the general election.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 4th congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman Joseph R. Bryson of the 4th congressional district, in office since 1939, defeated Republican challenger James B. Gaston.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 5th congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman James P. Richards of the 5th congressional district, in office since 1933, defeated Roy C. Cobb in the Democratic primary and Republican J.D. Hambright in the general election.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina, 6th congressional district
Incumbent Democratic Congressman John L. McMillan of the 6th congressional district, in office since 1939, defeated Republican challenger F.L. Bradfield.


1948 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia
The 1948 United States House of Representatives elections in Virginia were held on November 2, 1948 to determine who will represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States House of Representatives. Virginia had nine seats in the House, apportioned according to the 1940 United States Census. Representatives are elected for two-year terms.


1948 United States Olympic Trials (track and field)
The Men's portion of the 1948 United States Olympic Trials for track and field was held at Dyche Stadium on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Organized by Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), the two-day competition lasted from July 9–10.


1948 United States Olympic Trials (track and field)
The results of the event determined qualification for the United States at the 1948 Summer Olympics held in London.


1948 United States Olympic Trials (track and field), 1948 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials results, Women
The women's Olympic Trials were conducted on July 12 as a single day event in Providence, Rhode Island. It was considered horribly organized, or at least the women athletes were not accorded the same respect as the men in the sense that they had to conduct heats, semi-finals and finals all in the same day. Audrey Patterson ran five races that day to qualify in two events. Lillian Young ran three races and long jumped.


1948 United States Senate election in Alabama
The 1948 United States Senate election in Alabama was held on November 2, 1948.


1948 United States Senate election in Alabama
Senator John Sparkman, who was first elected in 1946 to finish the incomplete term of John Bankhead II, was re-elected to a full term in office over Republican Paul Parsons.


1948 United States Senate election in Colorado
The 1948 United States Senate election in Colorado took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Democratic Senator Edwin C. Johnson was re-elected to third term in a landslide over Republican Will Nicholson, a businessman and Air Force veteran.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia
The 1948 United States Senate election in Georgia took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Richard Russell Jr. was re-elected to a third term in office.


1948 United States Senate 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.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary
The Democratic primary election was held on September 8, 1948.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia, 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.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, County unit system
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.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, County unit system
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.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia, Democratic primary, County unit system
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.


1948 United States Senate election in Georgia, Bibliography
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1948 United States Senate election in Illinois
The 1948 United States Senate election in Illinois took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Republican Charles W. Brooks lost reelection to Democrat Paul Douglas.


1948 United States Senate election in Illinois, Election information
The primaries and general election coincided with those of other federal elections (United States President and House), as well as those for state elections.


1948 United States Senate election in Iowa
The 1948 United States Senate election in Iowa took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Republican Senator George A. Wilson ran for re-election to a second term but was defeated by Democratic former Senator Guy Gillette.


1948 United States Senate election in Louisiana
The 1948 United States Senate election in Louisiana was held on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Senator Allen J. Ellender was re-elected to a third term in office.


1948 United States Senate election in Louisiana
On August 31, Ellender won the Democratic primary with 61.7% of the vote. At this time, Louisiana was a one-party state, and the Democratic nomination was tantamount to victory. Ellender won the November general election without an opponent.


1948 United States Senate election in Maine
The 1948 United States Senate election in Maine was held on September 13, 1948. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator and Senate Majority Leader Wallace White did not seek a fourth term in office.


1948 United States Senate election in Maine
U.S. Representative Margaret Chase Smith defeated the two most recent Governors of Maine, Horace Hildreth and Sumner Sewall, in the Republican primary. In the general election, Smith resoundingly defeated Democrat Adrian Scolten of Portland.


1948 United States Senate election in Maine
Smith was the first woman ever elected to a full term in the U.S. Senate without first being appointed. Smith's election also made her the first woman to serve in both house of the United States Congress, as well as the first woman to represent the state of Maine in the Senate.


1948 United States Senate election in Massachusetts
The United States Senate election of 1948 in Massachusetts was held on November 2, 1948, with Republican incumbent Leverett Saltonstall defeating his challengers.


1948 United States Senate election in Michigan
The 1948 United States Senate election in Michigan was held on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Homer S. Ferguson was re-elected to a second term in office over U.S. Representative Frank E. Hook.


1948 United States Senate election in Minnesota
The 1948 United States Senate election in Minnesota took place on November 2, 1948. It was the first election held for Minnesota's Class 2 seat in the United States Senate since the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota merged in 1944 to form the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Democratic Mayor of Minneapolis and future Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey defeated incumbent Republican Joseph H. Ball, who sought a third term in the Senate. This is the first time a Democrat won a Senate seat in Minnesota through popular vote election.


1948 United States Senate election in Montana
The 1948 United States Senate election in Montana took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent United States Senator James E. Murray, who was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 1934 and was re-elected in 1936 and 1942, ran for re-election. After winning the Democratic primary, he faced Tom J. Davis, an attorney and the Republican nominee, in the general election. Following a narrow re-election in 1936, Murray significantly expanded his margin of victory and comfortably won re-election over Davis, resulting in him winning his fourth term and his third full term in the Senate.


1948 United States Senate election in Nebraska
The 1948 United States Senate election in Nebraska took place on November 2, 1948. Senate Majority Whip Kenneth S. Wherry was re-elected to a second term, defeating former Representative Terry Carpenter. He won by a larger margin than 1942, due to the absence of a third party candidate. Wherry overperformed Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey by 2.55%, who won the state with 54.15% in the presidential election.


1948 United States Senate election in New Jersey
The United States Senate election of 1948 in New Jersey was held on November 2, 1948.


1948 United States Senate election in New Jersey
Incumbent Republican Senator Albert Hawkes did not seek re-election to a second term.


1948 United States Senate election in New Jersey
Republican State Treasurer Robert C. Hendrickson defeated Princeton attorney Archibald S. Alexander in a close race.


1948 United States Senate election in Oklahoma
The 1948 United States Senate election in Oklahoma took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Republican Senator Edward H. Moore declined to run for re-election. A crowded Democratic primary, including the former Governor, multiple members of Congress, and several statewide elected officials, developed; former Governor Robert S. Kerr won a slim plurality in the initial primary and then defeated former Congressman Gomer Smith by a wide margin in the runoff. On the Republican side, Congressman Ross Rizley had an easy path to the nomination. Kerr defeated Rizley in a landslide, largely similar to President Harry S. Truman's landslide victory in Oklahoma over Republican presidential nominee Thomas E. Dewey.


1948 United States Senate election in South Carolina
The 1948 South Carolina United States Senate election was held on November 2, 1948 to select the U.S. Senator from the state of South Carolina. Incumbent Democratic Senator Burnet R. Maybank won the Democratic primary and defeated Republican challenger J. Bates Gerald in the general election to win another six-year term.


1948 United States Senate election in South Carolina, Democratic primary, Results
Senator Maybank narrowly achieved a majority of the primary vote, avoiding a potential run-off election against Dorn.


1948 United States Senate election in South Carolina, General election, Campaign
Since the end of Reconstruction in 1877, the Democratic Party dominated the politics of South Carolina and its statewide candidates were never seriously challenged. Maybank did not campaign for the general election as there was no chance of defeat.


1948 United States Senate election in South Dakota
The 1948 United States Senate election in South Dakota took place on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Republican Senator Harlan J. Bushfield, suffering from poor health, declined to run for re-election. On September 27, 1948, he died in office; his wife, Vera C. Bushfield, was appointed to succeed him. Congressman Karl E. Mundt easily won the Republican primary and advanced to the general election, where he was opposed by Democratic nominee John A. Engel, an attorney. Hundt defeated Engel in a landslide.


1948 United States Senate election in South Dakota, Democratic Primary
John A. Engel, an attorney from Avon, was the only Democratic candidate to file for the U.S. Senate and he won the nomination unopposed, thereby removing it from the primary election ballot.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas
The 1948 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 2, 1948. After the inconclusive Democratic Party primary in July, a hotly contested runoff was held in August in which U.S. Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson was officially declared to have defeated former Texas governor Coke Stevenson for the party's nomination by eighty-seven votes. The state party's executive committee subsequently confirmed Johnson's nomination by a margin of one vote.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas
The validity of the runoff result was challenged before the US Supreme Court due to allegations of irregularities, and in later years, testimony by the parties involved indicated that widespread fraud occurred and that friendly political machines produced the votes needed for Johnson to defeat Stevenson. After years of desultory opposition to Democrats during the post-Reconstruction years of the Solid South, Republicans vigorously contested the general election by nominating businessman and party activist Jack Porter, who waged an aggressive campaign. Johnson won his first term in the Senate, but by a closer margin than usual for Texas Democrats.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
Like other Southern states between Reconstruction and the 1960s, Texas was a one-party state, with the white population solidly voting Democratic as a legacy of the American Civil War and the Reconstruction era. Disputes within the Texas Democratic Party were far more important than disputes between Democrats and Republicans. Starting with the 1944 election, the Democratic Party had been split between the Texas Loyalists, who supported Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, and the Texas Regulars, who opposed them. Though the Texas Regulars had officially disbanded after the 1944 election, the split remained.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
Stevenson had supported the Texas Regulars in 1944, and in 1948 flirted with supporting the Dixiecrat presidential candidacy of South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond. Johnson had been a Roosevelt supporter and was a member of the Texas Loyalist faction. The acrimonious split in Texas Democrats ensured an unusually bitter primary battle between Johnson and Stevenson.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
The area around the Rio Grande valley was popularly known in Texas as "the Valley." in a political sense, the Valley also included several counties to the north. Most of the people in the Valley were Chicanos (Mexican Americans), and the region was often described as feeling more like Mexico than the United States since Spanish was more widely spoken than English, the culture was predominantly Mexican, and most houses were built in the same style as those found just across the border in Mexico.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
The Valley had the lowest literacy rate in the entire United States, with most of its people being unable to read and write in Spanish, let alone English. The dominant element in the Valley were Anglos (meaning white Texans since in Texas, the term did not necessarily imply English ancestry), who tended to be ranch owners. Most Mexican Americans continued the custom originating in Mexico of accepting leadership from a patrón ("patron") or jefe ("boss").


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
The Valley was characterized by a feudal political culture in which the Mexican-American tenant farmers and ranch workers were like serfs, and the "bosses" were like feudal barons. In Texas, voting required paying a poll tax. It was common for the wealthy patrones to pay the tax for the Mexican Americans and to order them to vote for the candidate supported by the bosses. The most noteworthy aspect of the Valley's political culture was extensive corruption and voting fraud. To back up their rule, the jefes often appointed their pistoleros (gunmen) as deputy sheriffs who ensured that farmers and workers voted the "right" way by handing out ballots that had already been marked, which they would then place in the ballot boxes.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
The most powerful of the Valley's bosses was George Berham Parr, whom the press called "the Duke of Duval." Locally, Parr was known to the Anglos as "George B" and to the Chicanos as Tacuacha ("sly possum"). Parr owned much of the land and many of the businesses in the Valley. For instance, the only company allowed to sell beer in Duval County was owned by Parr. Besides Duval County, Parr's influence extended to Jim Wells, Zapata, Webb, La Salle and Starr counties.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
One of Parr's  pistoleros was Luis Salas, known as Indio (meaning Indian, a reference to his Tepehuán descent and dark complexion), a man from Durango, Mexico, who fled to the United States after he had killed a man in a bar brawl. Salas, a burly 6'1" (185 cm) man, known for his great physical strength, ferocious temper and love of violence, was in charge of elections in Precinct 13 in Jim Wells County. As Parr was the first Anglo to treat Salas with respect and paid him well for his services, Salas was extremely loyal.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
Parr was also a friend of Johnson, as Frank B. Lloyd, the District Attorney (DA) in Alice, Texas recalled: "George and Lyndon were very close. He [Johnson] didn't make public spectacles [of trips to Alice] like some of the politicians did. But there was the telephone." When Johnson first ran for the Senate in 1941, he paid a large sum of money to Parr to obtain the Valley vote. Parr had supported Stevenson during his runs for governor, but in 1944, the two fell out.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
The commander of a training base for the Army Air Force in Laredo complained to Stevenson that half of his men had been infected with venereal diseases after they visited brothels run by Parr. Laredo asked that the governor appoint an honest district attorney who would crack down on prostitution. Over the objections of Parr, who wanted a family friend of one of his cronies appointed as district attorney, Stevenson appointed one who implemented a crackdown on prostitution. Parr never forgave Stevenson.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
As a congressman, Johnson had long lobbied for a presidential pardon for Parr, who had been convicted of tax evasion in 1932. In February 1946, the newly appointed United States Attorney General, Texan Tom C. Clark, recommended a pardon to President Truman, who granted it on 20 February. Parr believed that Johnson's lobbying had ensured his pardon, which cemented their friendship.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
In Texas elections, the general rule was "The lead in the runoff always wins." In Texas Democratic primaries, which were overseen by the party, not the state government, major candidates would "hold out" by delaying reporting their final tallies so they could add additional votes if needed. That practice favored the side that initially led the runoff because it was difficult for the other side to add enough votes to win without sparking plausible accusations of fraud. One of the few exceptions to that rule was the 1941 special election for Senate.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
Johnson was a candidate to fill the vacancy created by the death of Morris Sheppard. Governor W. Lee O'Daniel intended to run for the seat and appointed the elderly and infirm Andrew Jackson Houston, son of Sam Houston, as a placeholder. (Houston was in such poor physical condition that the trip to Washington to assume his duties taxed his health, and he died immediately before the special election.) On election day on Saturday, June 28, 1941, O'Daniel and Johnson were the top two finishers. That night, Johnson was ahead by 5,000 votes with 96% of the votes counted.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
Johnson was declared the winner, congratulations poured in from supporters in Washington, and his campaign staff and volunteers celebrated into the night. In the following days, vote totals shifted until O'Daniel took the lead, and Johnson lost by 1,311 votes. The new totals were announced the Tuesday morning after the election, so late that it was considered shocking. The final result was O'Daniel 175,590 votes (30.49%) and Johnson 174,279 (30.26%).


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
John Connally believed the O'Daniel campaign waited until Johnson's vote totals were announced so that they knew what they had to beat and then added enough fraudulent votes to his total from areas with the polls controlled by O'Daniel loyalists to give O'Daniel his narrow victory.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
As a result of that experience, Johnson prepared for a close runoff by arranging in 1948 for his supporters who controlled votes, including Parr, to withhold their final tallies until the statewide results were announced. By waiting until the statewide result was in, Johnson would know the figure he had to surpass and so could add as many votes as necessary to his total.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
In 1946, Edgar Shelton Jr., a son of George Parr's lawyer who was acquainted with Parr's associates, wrote in his University of Texas master's degree thesis about the possibility of election fraud in Texas runoffs:


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
"What if we had two men running for an important office such as Senator or Governor, one of them being popular but dishonest, and the other being popular and honest. Assume that the dishonest man had secured a pledge of support from the bosses of the Valley, as he probably would. If the race were close, and the honest man was ahead by only a few thousand votes with all of the returns in except from the Valley... the election could easily be 'stolen' by having the Valley counties send in just enough votes to put the dishonest man in office. Thus the will of the people of the State would be denied by less than a dozen men, all political feudal lords of the Valley."


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Background
Shelton wrote that as of 1946, "This has probably not yet happened."


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Stevenson, Johnson, and Peddy were widely regarded as the front runners. On May 16, 1948, a poll showed Stevenson ahead of Johnson 64% to 28%. On June 20, the same poll showed Stevenson with 47% and Johnson with 37%. On 13 June 1948, the Austin American-Statesmen spoke of "a withering lack enthusiasm" on the part of voters for the election.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
In mid-June 1948, Johnson's campaign was able to get access to a Sikorsky S-51 helicopter (flown by a test pilot who had never flown in a helicopter before), a first for Texas political campaigns. It was suggested to Johnson that he fly around in a helicopter owing to the size of Texas, and because many Texans lived in small towns where the roads were usually just mud tracks. Johnson's campaign dubbed the aircraft the "Johnson City Windmill".


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Johnson made campaign appearances around Texas six days a week from dawn to dusk and the spectacle drew large crowds to fairgrounds and other impromptu landing sites. At the time, helicopters were a recent invention and most people in Texas had never seen one, making the aircraft an instant draw. One newspaper spoke of Johnson "flitting around in a strange sort of flying machine" that had never been seen in Texas before. Attached to the helicopter was a giant loudspeaker, which allowed Johnson to announce to farmers working their fields as he hovered above them: "Hello, down there!


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
This is your friend, Lyndon Johnson, your candidate for the United States Senate. I hope you'll vote for me on Primary day. And bring along your relatives to vote, too". As Johnson campaigned in the Rio Grande valley, one journalist wrote: "Johnson brought people rushing out of their homes and places of business as he circled cities in the thickly populated valley, waving his hat and urging people to come and see him".


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
"Johnson used to pitch his hat out of the helicopter, you know. We'd go over the crowd several times, in fact, this would bring the people in. As we got very low coming in, he would pitch his hat out, and some little kid would grab it and come running up with it later, and he'd give them a dollar for the hat." - James Chudars, helicopter pilot


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
In early July the S-51 was returned for required maintenance and the campaign switched to a smaller Bell 47D for the remainder of the campaign.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
As governor, Stevenson had increased taxes on the oil companies, which he used to improve the education system and increase pensions, making him very popular with Texas voters. The Texas chapter of the American Federation of Labor endorsed Stevenson, which he did not repudiate. Unions were unpopular in the rural areas of Texas, where they were associated with corruption, urbanization and with ethnic groups, the so-called "hyphenated Americans", who were not seen as proper Americans.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Through Johnson had sometimes billed himself as an idealistic New Deal liberal, as a Congressman representing a district in Texas, a very conservative Southern state, he had consistently voted against union-friendly legislation, causing the Federation of Labor to endorse Stevenson out of frustration with Johnson. Johnson seized upon the endorsement to claim there was a "secret deal", maintaining "Labor leaders made a secret agreement with Calculating Coke [Johnson's term of abuse for Stevenson] that they couldn't get out of me". Johnson accused Stevenson of having to promise to vote to repeal the anti-union Taft–Hartley Act, which was popular in Texas. At the same time, Johnson had recordings of Stevenson's speeches that had been edited to make the conservative Stevenson sound like a downright reactionary, aired to select groups of liberals in New York, Washington and other northeastern cities to raise money to help defeat the "Neanderthal" Stevenson.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Johnson made much of his brief World War II service, proudly wearing the Silver Star he had been awarded for heroism in 1942 (which later became the subject of controversy), and ridiculed Stevenson for not having military experience. At nearly all his campaign rallies, Johnson made certain that a disabled World War II veteran was there to endorse him, which he used to enhance his "war hero" aura. One reporter who had apparently been misinformed by Johnson about his war record wrote about him: "...flying in B-29s, helping bomb one Japanese island after another into submission three years ago."


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
In addition, Johnson warned about the "red tide of Communism", predicting the Soviet Union would have an atomic bomb by 1951 and World War III might break out in the next decade, which he used as a way of contrasting his internationalism vs. the isolationism of Stevenson. Johnson used Stevenson's isolationism to warn that electing him would make a Third World War more likely and that the war would be fought on American soil instead of in Europe.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Johnson also noted that Texas had no electricity in rural areas until the New Deal, which he used as argument for electing him, because he had voted for the New Deal as a congressman and lobbied tirelessly to electrify rural Texas. The race was noted for its vitriolic tone with many personal attacks; in particular Johnson took to mimicking Stevenson's voice, pet expressions, and mannerisms in speeches that mocked Stevenson's integrity. Stevenson in turn depicted himself as a simple cowboy and accused Johnson of being financially supported by oil companies and unions.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Those who knew Johnson well at the time described him on the campaign trail as being on a sort of "high" as he displayed manic energy and restlessness. At the same time, Johnson's temper, always explosive at the best of times, was unusually fiery as one of his aides, Horace Busby recalled: "I'm talking about explosions, tirades. Especially explosions against the women who worked for him: 'Everyone in this outfit is against me!' That kind of thing".


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
Johnson alternatively charmed or bullied the reporters covering his campaign, at one point exploding in rage at an overweight reporter, who having trouble keeping up with him, leading Johnson to mock him for his obesity. As Johnson's self-confidence grew, he become notably angry at audiences whom did not cheer him as much as he wanted, alienating voters. By contrast, Stevenson's dignified behavior at the Texas Cowboy Reunion, in which he rode down the street on horseback, won him many cheers.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Campaign
The primary election was held on Saturday, July 24, 1948. Stevenson came in first with 39.7% of the vote to Johnson's 33.7% and conservative candidate George Peddy's 19.7%.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
Since no candidate received a majority of the votes, a runoff (also called 'second primary') was held between the top two finishers, Stevenson and Johnson. Because third-place finisher George Peddy was conservative, as was Stevenson, most political observers expected Stevenson would receive the support of former Peddy backers and easily win the runoff.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
In an appeal to conservative voters, Johnson stated in a radio broadcast: "Lyndon Johnson voted for the anti-Communist Taft-Hartley Law. Lyndon Johnson will never vote to repeal this law. But my opponent has not yet made a public statement as to just where he stands on this measure that bans Communist control of labor unions". To hammer in the point, Johnson created a pseudo-newspaper, the Johnson Journal, that was mailed to 340,000 rural homes in August with the headline "Communists Favor Coke".


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
In response, Stevenson accused Johnson of not doing enough for Texas despite having served as a Congressman since 1937. Aiding Johnson was the endorsement of former Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, whose husband James "Pa" Ferguson had also served as governor. The Fergusons enjoyed popular support, especially among rural voters, even though Pa Ferguson had been impeached for corruption. Ma Ferguson recalled that when her husband died in 1944, Johnson attended the funeral, while Stevenson did not. She now repaid Johnson's gesture by publishing a letter urging Ferguson supporters to back Johnson.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
During the runoff contest, Johnson campaigned even harder than he had for the first primary, while Stevenson's campaign flagged because Johnson's spending vastly surpassed Stevenson's. Johnson campaigned hard in East Texas counties that had been the source of most of Peddy's primary election support, and he received the endorsements of two of Peddy's brothers. On the other hand, Stevenson committed errors including appearing presumptuous by traveling to Washington to be photographed meeting with senior Truman administration officials and posing in the Senate chamber before the runoff had even taken place.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
The small counties of Hansford and Kinney, which had favored Stevenson with margins of over three to one and over two to one respectively in the primary did not hold runoffs, assuming that their vote totals would not influence the outcome. If they had participated and Stevenson had won by the same margin as he had in the primary, the votes from those counties might have enabled Stevenson to finish ahead of Johnson.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
In Howard County, which had quartered an Army Air Force Bombardier School during World War II, General Ira C. Eaker, former deputy commander of the Army Air Force, came out in support of Johnson ten days before the runoff. Stevenson's campaign counterattacked, but Eaker was defended by other prominent military officers and by Johnson. Criticizing a prominent military leader so soon after World War II likely had a negative effect on Stevenson's turnout, while Howard County returned an abnormally high net gain for Johnson as compared to his gains in other areas.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
In San Augustine and Shelby counties, abnormally large net vote gains for Johnson were later attributed to, "promises of contracts, loans and cash payments to individuals". Similar efforts in Gregg County by the Stevenson campaign led to gains for Stevenson and reversals for the Johnson campaign.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Campaign
A week before the runoff, a poll showed Stevenson leading Johnson 48% to 41%. The day before the runoff election, a poll showed Stevenson leading Johnson 53% to 47%.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
The runoff election was Saturday, August 28, 1948. According to later analysis, approximately 113,000 voters who had voted for Stevenson in July did not participate in the August runoff election. In contrast, only an estimated 4,000 voters who voted for Johnson in July didn't turn out in August. Stevenson received the support of half of Peddy's voters, but Johnson exceeded expectations by obtaining the votes of one-fifth of those who previously voted for Peddy. Those who didn't vote in July or who had voted for minor candidates heavily supported Johnson. Johnson's efforts to win over Peddy's supporters bore fruit; though he attracted fewer overall than Stevenson, Johnson's existing supporters in the nine counties carried by Peddy in the first primary added to Johnson's new supporters among former Peddy backers enabled Johnson to carry all nine Peddy counties in the runoff.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
The vote count took a week, and was handled by the Democratic State Central Committee. On August 30 at 11:45, results had been tabulated from 211 of the state's 254 counties. Stevenson's total (492,481) had surpassed Johnson's total (492,271) by 210 votes. Johnson started calling his county campaign managers to reassure them that he would win, and a Johnson aide later told his biographer Robert Caro that Johnson purposely avoided asking for fraud to be committed so that he would be able to testify truthfully under oath in any post-election legal proceedings.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
However, Johnson did ask for his campaign managers to "find" more votes for him by reexamining the tally sheets. In the process of attempting to increase Johnson's total, one of his aides accidentally called a Stevenson campaign manager to ask him to find more votes for Johnson. One of Parr's aides stated he took a telephone call from Johnson to Parr that was about the election and the fact that the counties under Parr's control still had not reported their votes meant extra votes could be added to Johnson's total.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Three days after the polls closed, results were still being tabulated and Stevenson led by a small amount. On September 2, Stevenson was still in the lead. The election returns from Houston, Fort Worth and Dallas showed Stevenson leading by 20,000 votes, giving Stevenson enough of a lead that he celebrated his apparent victory. The election returns from Bexar County in the July primary gave Stevenson a 12,000 vote margin. In the runoff, Johnson's personal attention helped reverse the result, and the newly reported 2,000 vote margin in his favor made the contest competitive again.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Early on Friday, September 3, an unusually late six days after the election, new vote tallies from Jim Wells and Duval Counties were announced, replacing previous counts and giving Johnson the lead. The election results from the Valley favored Johnson by statistically improbable amounts, with Duval County reporting 4,195 votes for Johnson and only 38 for Stevenson. In addition to lopsided totals in Jim Wells and Duval counties, Parr's influence in Jim Hogg County was estimated to have delivered Johnson over 1,000 additional votes.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Stevenson held a press conference and accused Johnson of fraud, saying "A concentrated effort is being made to count me out of this Senate race". Johnson denied any fraud, saying that the vote returns had been merely incorrectly reported and he had known of the true figures all along.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Johnson's statement prompted much skepticism with the newspapers pointing that some of the judges supervising the vote in "the Valley" were saying as late as 29 August that they had not counted all of the votes, leading to questions about how he had known of the precise number of votes since Election Day. In a subsequent radio address, Johnson claimed that he only learned of the vote totals on 31 August and challenged Stevenson to produce evidence of fraud.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Stevenson sent in a team led by Mexican-American lawyer Pete Tijerina to obtain evidence of fraud, and Tijerina interviewed several individuals who were recorded as having voted, but who stated that they had not cast ballots. Tijerina was unable to find a notary public willing to authenticate these statements, which precluded them from being presented in court. After sheriff's deputies warned Tijernia and his team to depart Duval County or local authorities would not able to guarantee their safety, Tijernia and his aides immediately left.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Another team of Stevenson lawyers went to Jim Wells County and asked to see the tally sheets, but were turned away. After interviewing members of the local Democratic Executive Committee who mentioned irregularities in the tally sheets, which were by now locked in a vault at the Texas State Bank, the lawyers believed the tally sheets contained evidence of fraud.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Stevenson, accompanied by Frank Hamer, a legendary Texas Ranger and longtime friend and hunting partner, went to Alice, the Jim Wells County seat, and attempted to see the tally sheets. Many feared a shootout as Stevenson and Hamer walked down the main street of Alice with their hands on their guns, but they were able to avoid a confrontation by intimidating five of Parr's pistoleros into backing down.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
The bank manager allowed them to briefly view the list, then took it back when he saw them making notes, but Stevenson and Hamer had seen enough to convince them that blatant fraud had taken place, particularly in the vote totals for Precinct 13. The last 200 or so names on the Precinct 13 tally sheet were in alphabetical order and written in black ink and identical handwriting that was different from the writing for other entries, which were in blue ink. Stevenson and Hamer had memorized enough of the names that they were able to contact some of the individuals, many of whom stated that they had not voted.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Stevenson sent lawyers to interview voters in Precinct 13 and collect affidavits. The claims of fraud attracted much media attention both in Texas and nationally, with Parr being profiled in Time as the man who made Johnson the next Senator from Texas. As Stevenson was a member of the Texas Regulars faction opposed to Truman, while Johnson was a member of the pro-New Deal Texas Loyalists, the Senate race had national implications, and Truman favored Johnson in the ensuing controversy.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
Election Judge Luis Salas had responsibility for counting the votes in Jim Wells County. According to one observer, Jimmy Holmgreen, Salas listed votes that had been cast for Stevenson as votes for Johnson. Salas silenced complaints by ordering Holmgreen away from the table where he was counting the votes, and Holmgreen was so intimidated that he meekly complied. Salas said in 1977 that on Parr's order, he had created the last 202 fraudulent ballots from Precinct 13 (200 for Johnson, 2 for Stevenson).


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
According to Salas, he witnessed the fraudulent votes added to the tally sheet and then certified them as authentic. "We had the law to ourselves there," Salas said. "We had iron control. If a man was opposed to us, we'd put him out of business. Parr was the Godfather. He had life or death control. We could tell any election judge: 'Give us 50 percent of the vote, the other guy 20 per cent.' We had it made in every election."


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
With the official statewide number of ballots reported as 988,295, Johnson was announced the winner by 87 votes. There were many allegations of voter fraud, with the greatest focus on the last 202 "patently fraudulent" Precinct 13 votes. Some of these voters insisted that they had not voted that day, while the last of the voters whose names appeared before the questionable entries on the tally sheet stated that there had been no one behind him in line shortly before the polls closed.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Election
In his 1979 memoir, Salas wrote: "In all these years, George told me to give our candidates 80 percent of the total votes, regardless if the people voted against us". In another passage, he wrote that Parr had told him: "Luis, do not hesitate, Spend all the money necessary, but we have to have Johnson elected". In Means of Ascent, Robert Caro made the case that through the machinations of Parr and Salas, Johnson stole the election in Jim Wells County.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legal battle
At 9:50 pm on Friday, September 10, the Johnson team obtained an ex parte temporary restraining order to prevent a recount in Jim Wells County.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legal battle
The state Democratic Party upheld Johnson. At midnight on September 13, the Democratic Party's Executive Committee voted to certify Johnson's nomination by a majority of one (29–28), with the last vote cast for Johnson by Temple, Texas newspaper publisher Frank W. Mayborn, whom John Connolly persuaded to cut short an out-of-state business trip and return to Texas to participate in the meeting.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legal battle
At 6:25 am on Wednesday, September 15, Stevenson obtained a temporary restraining order from federal District Court Judge Whitfield Davidson, who was vacationing at a cabin on Caddo Lake, which prevented certification of Johnson as the party's nominee. On September 21–22, Stevenson went to court and obtained an injunction that prevented Johnson from appearing on the general election ballot. Johnson appealed, represented by his friend, future US Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas. Fortas, an extremely able lawyer known for his support for liberal causes, argued that a federal court had no jurisdiction over a state primary election.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legal battle
Associate Justice Hugo Black, sitting as a circuit court judge, ruled that jurisdiction over naming a nominee rested with the party, not the federal government. Stevenson appealed to the full United States Supreme Court, which heard arguments in early October and sustained Black's ruling on October 7, effectively ending the dispute.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
For years afterwards, the local community was "rife with rumor" concerning the events of the runoff election. Stevenson never accepted the loss. "It was very upsetting to him and he thought it was certainly not a legitimate conclusion," Frederica Wyatt, author of a Stevenson biography, said. "He was bitter about it." The Johnson camp never admitted to a stolen election.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
According to George Reedy, who would later serve as White House press secretary under Lyndon Johnson, "if Stevenson had really wanted an honest count of the ballots, he would have gone, as Texas law clearly provides, and made an immediate appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, and all the ballots would immediately have been impounded. Stevenson did not take that route."


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
In 1967, Ronnie Dugger visited with President Johnson in the White House and asked questions about Box 13.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
One night, up in his bedroom, he started laughing and he seemed to wonder if he could find something and he said he was going back into Bird's bedroom, which was next door. And he rummaged around in a closet. I could almost- I think I could hear him rummaging around in the closet. And he came in with this photograph of these five guys in front of this old car with Box 13 balanced on the hood of it. I looked at him and grinned and he grinned back, but he wouldn't explain it to me.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
I asked him, well, who were these guys? Why did they have Box 13 on the hood of this car? What did it mean? And he just -- nothing. He wouldn't say. As we'd say in Texas, he wouldn't say nothin'. So there it is -- history turning on a mystery.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
After Johnson's innovation of using a helicopter to campaign, other candidates followed suit. In the 1950 United States Senate election in California, Democratic nominee Helen Gahagan Douglas, who was close to Johnson, also employed one in her unsuccessful campaign against Richard Nixon.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Democratic primary, Runoff, Legacy
In 1990, Robert Caro said, "People have been saying for 40 years, 'No one knows what really happened in that election,' and 'Everybody does it.' Neither of those statements is true. I don't think that this is the only election that was ever stolen, but there was never such brazen thievery." Caro said that Johnson was given the votes of "the dead, the halt, the missing and those who were unaware that an election was going on".


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Republican nomination
With Texas part of the Democratic Party's Solid South since the end of the Reconstruction era in the 1870s, the Democratic nomination for statewide office had long been considered tantamount to election. In 1940, an independent oil producer, Homa Jackson Porter, broke with the Democratic Party because of his opposition to a third term for President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In the mid-1940s, Porter created the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO), a statewide organization of oil producers, of which he became president. Porter, usually known as H. J. Porter or Jack Porter, became a Republican after the 1940 election, and began a long term effort to construct a competitive Republican Party in Texas.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Republican nomination
In 1948, Carlos G. Watson initially received the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Watson, a loyal Republican who had run several unsuccessful campaigns for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate as a token candidate so that Democratic nominees would not be unopposed, agreed to step aside in favor of a more viable candidate if one could be found.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Republican nomination
Sensing an opportunity to make inroads among conservative voters in the wake of both the animosity left over from the Democratic runoff and the Dixiecrat defection from the Democrats because of incumbent Democratic President Harry S. Truman's, pro-civil rights stand, Republicans attempted unsuccessfully to recruit two Democrats, former Congressman Martin Dies Jr. and Senator W. Lee O'Daniel, the incumbent whose term was scheduled to expire in January 1949, to accept their nomination. Porter had already been named to head the Dewey-Warren presidential campaign in Texas, but when both Dies and O'Daniel declined, Porter agreed to make the Senate race. Watson declined the nomination in September, and the state Republican committee then selected Porter as his replacement.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, Republican nomination
Porter ran an aggressive campaign and attempted to cut into Democratic strength by appealing to conservative voters. Stevenson endorsed Porter in the general election, and Porter espoused a platform that included advocacy of states' rights, the continuation of  racial segregation, militant anti-communism, and a pro-business approach to tax and economic policy. In addition, Porter argued that Johnson was corrupt and that the runoff election results were so tainted that if Johnson won the general election, the U.S. Senate might refuse to seat him, depriving Texas of half its representation. Porter also argued that with Truman supposedly sure to lose to Republican Thomas E. Dewey, a Republican U.S. Senator could be more effective than a Democrat.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, General election
Johnson defeated Porter in November but by a narrower margin than Democrats in Texas usually obtained. Johnson returned to Washington as a senator and was permanently dubbed "Landslide Lyndon." Dismissive of his critics, Johnson happily adopted the nickname, though he came to dislike it in later years.


1948 United States Senate election in Texas, General election
Texas Republicans experienced increased voter support in the years that followed. Porter became a member of the Republican National Committee and provided crucial support to Dwight Eisenhower during Eisenhower's presidential candidacy in 1952, which enable him to obtain the Republican nomination over his main rival, Robert A. Taft. Eisenhower carried Texas in 1952 and again in 1956. In 1960, the Democrat John F. Kennedy only narrowly won Texas, despite the presence of Johnson on the ticket as his vice presidential running mate. The Republican John Tower won the 1961 special election to replace Johnson in the Senate, a further indication that Porter's 1948 candidacy had put Texas Republicans on the road to viability.


1948 United States Senate election in Virginia
The 1948 United States Senate election in Virginia was held on November 2, 1948. Incumbent Democratic Senator Absalom Willis Robertson defeated Republican Robert H. Woods and was re-elected to his first full term in office.


1948 United States Senate election in Wyoming
The 1948 United States Senate election in Wyoming was held on November 2, 1948. First-term Republican Senator Edward V. Robertson ran for re-election to a second term. He was challenged in the general election by Democrat Lester C. Hunt, the Governor of Wyoming. Aided in part by President Harry S. Truman's narrow victory in Wyoming over Republican Thomas E. Dewey, and with his own record of winning statewide in Wyoming, Hunt defeated Robertson in a landslide. However, Hunt would not serve a full term in the Senate; he died by suicide on June 19, 1954 and Republican Edward D. Crippa was appointed to replace him.


1948 United States Senate elections
The 1948 United States Senate elections were elections which coincided with the election of Democratic President Harry S. Truman for a full term. Truman had campaigned against an "obstructionist" Congress that had blocked many of his initiatives, and in addition the U.S. economy recovered from the postwar recession of 1946–47 by election day. Thus Truman was rewarded with a Democratic gain of nine seats in the Senate, enough to give them control of the chamber.


1948 United States Senate elections, Results summary
Colored shading indicates party with largest share of that row.


1948 United States Senate elections, Gains and losses
In addition to gaining an open seat in Oklahoma, the Democrats defeated eight Republican incumbents:


1948 United States Senate elections, Race summaries, Special elections during the 80th Congress
In these special elections, the winner was seated during 1948 or before January 3, 1949; ordered by election date.


1948 United States Senate elections, Race summaries, Elections leading to the next Congress
In these general elections, the winners were elected for the term beginning January 3, 1949; ordered by state.


1948 United States Senate elections, Montana
Incumbent United States Senator James E. Murray, who was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 1934 and was re-elected in 1936 and 1942, ran for re-election. After winning the Democratic primary, he faced Tom J. Davis, an attorney and the Republican nominee, in the general election. Following a narrow re-election in 1936, Murray significantly expanded his margin of victory and comfortably won re-election over Davis, winning his fourth term and his third full term in the Senate.


1948 United States Senate elections, North Carolina
There were 2 elections to the same seat, due to the December 15, 1946 death of three-term Democrat Josiah Bailey. Democratic former congressman William B. Umstead was appointed December 18, 1946 to continue Bailey's term, pending a special election.