Editing Lyndon B. Johnson (section)

=== 1941 U.S. Senate election ===
{{Main|1941 United States Senate special election in Texas}}
In April 1941, incumbent [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] [[Morris Sheppard]] from Texas died. Under Texas law, a [[1941 United States Senate special election in Texas|special election]] for a vacant Senate seat must be held within a few months of the vacancy, meaning that the election would not be held during a normal November election, giving Johnson the chance to run without forfeiting his seat in the House.<ref name="Sweany-2006">{{Cite web |last=Sweany |first=Brian D. |date=February 2006 |title=Texas History 101 |url=https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/texas-history-101-8/ |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=Texas Monthly |language=en }}</ref> The election would be held without party primaries, and with no runoff, meaning that Johnson would have to compete against every Democrat — without the chance of facing the frontrunner, Governor [[W. Lee O'Daniel|W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel]], in a 1-on-1 runoff election.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> The first pre-election polls showed Johnson receiving only 5% of the vote, but Johnson ran a fierce campaign, barnstorming the state and emphasizing his close relationship with President Roosevelt.<ref name="Sweany-2006" />

On Election Day, Johnson held a strong lead in the returns throughout the whole night, and with 96 percent of the ballots counted, Johnson held a 5,000-vote lead.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> According to [[John Connally]], future Governor and Johnson's campaign manager, local election officials began calling Connally's office and asking him about whether they should report the vote tallies.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> Connally told them to report the votes, which allegedly allowed O'Daniel's political allies among the [[South Texas|South]] and [[East Texas]] party bosses to know the exact number of fraudulent votes needed for O'Daniel to catch up to Johnson.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> According to Connally, <blockquote>The opposition then {{mdashb}} Governor O'Daniel and his people {{mdashb}} knew exactly how many votes they had to have to take the lead... They kept changing the results, and our lead got smaller and smaller and smaller. Finally, on Wednesday afternoon, we wound up on the short side of the stick and lost the election by 1,311 votes. I'm basically responsible for losing that 1941 campaign. We let them know exactly how many votes they had to have.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /></blockquote> In addition to O'Daniel's allies, state business interests aligned with former impeached and convicted Texas Governor [[James E. Ferguson|"Pa" Ferguson]] had been concerned with O'Daniel's support of prohibition as Governor; they believed that he could do much less damage to their cause in the Senate.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> The lieutenant governor, [[Coke R. Stevenson]], was not in favor of prohibition, making his possible promotion to Governor a key selling point for the state's business interests in manipulating the election results.<ref name="Sweany-2006" /> In the final vote tally, Johnson fell short by just 0.23% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite web |title= TX US Senate - Special Election Race - Jun 28, 1941 |url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=30411&ShowAllCand=Y |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=Our Campaigns }}</ref>

While Johnson's loss in the 1941 Senate race was a stinging defeat, he did not have to give up his seat in the House, which permitted him to maintain numerous allies, including [[George Berham Parr]], who ran a political machine in the [[Lower Rio Grande Valley]] in South Texas.<ref name="Dallek 1991">{{harvp|Dallek|1991|p=327}}</ref> U.S. Senator [[W. Lee O'Daniel]] became unpopular during his time in the Senate, and decided to forgo a bid for re-election in 1948,<ref>{{Cite web |title=TSHA {{!}} O'Daniel, Wilbert Lee [Pappy] |url=https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/odaniel-wilbert-lee-pappy |access-date=May 29, 2023 |website=www.tshaonline.org}}</ref> so Johnson began preparing for a close Senate runoff by arranging for his supporters who controlled votes, including Parr, to withhold their final tallies until the statewide results were announced.<ref name="Dallek 1991" /> By waiting until the statewide result was reported, Johnson was able to know the figure he had to surpass and so could add as many votes as necessary to his total.<ref name="Dallek 1991"/> It would prove consequential, as Johnson would win the Democratic primary in 1948 by just 87 votes.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Tolchin |first1=Martin |last2=Times |first2=Special To the New York |date=February 11, 1990 |title=How Johnson Won Election He'd Lost |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/02/11/us/how-johnson-won-election-he-d-lost.html |access-date=May 29, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>