In her bid for reelection in 1944, Caraway placed a poor fourth in the Democratic primary and lost to freshman U.S. Representative J. William Fulbright of Arkansas' 3rd congressional district. He was the young, dynamic former president of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville who had already gained a national reputation. To claim the seat, Fulbright defeated sitting Governor Homer Martin Adkins and then the Republican Victor Wade of Batesville. The lack of visibility with her constituents may have been the primary reason that Caraway lost the 1944 nomination. On her final day in the Senate, she received a rare standing ovation from her all-male colleagues. Roosevelt then appointed her to the Employees' Compensation Commission, and in 1946, President Harry S. Truman gave her a post on the Employees' Compensation Appeals Board, on which she served until suffering a stroke in January 1950. She died on December 21 of the same year in Falls Church, Virginia, and was buried in Oaklawn Cemetery in Jonesboro, Arkansas.