The 1922 United States Senate election in Mississippi was held on November 7, 1922. Incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator John Sharp Williams did not run for re-election to a third term in office.
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In the Democratic primary to succeed Williams, U.S. Representative Hubert D. Stephens defeated former Senator James K. Vardaman, who had held Mississippi's other Senate seat for one term. The race required a run-off, as neither candidate achieved a majority in the August primary with suffragette Belle Kearney in the race.
Stephens's victory in the September 5 run-off was tantamount to election; he faced only nominal opposition from the Republican and Socialist candidates in the November general election.
Former Senator James Vardaman joined the race in June.[1]
Vardaman was condemned by former President Woodrow Wilson, who had engineered his defeat in 1918 over his opposition to American involvement in World War I. Wilson emphatically denounced Vardaman in a single sentence, stating, "I think he is thoroughly false and untrustworthy and that it would be a great detriment to Mississippi and the nation if he should be returned to the Senate."[2] Vardaman responded with a lengthy statement attributing Wilson's opposition to their long-standing enmity.[3]
Belle Kearney, among the first women to run for Senate anywhere in the country, encountered opposition from both men and women. One politician was quoted as saying, "When I cast my ballot for a woman, you can rest assured she is going to be a good-looking one and not so damn old as Miss Belle."[4] Other former suffragettes privately withheld support based on past experience with Kearney. Nellie Nugent Somerville told a friend that Kearney "would never get [her] vote" because she had "worried and hindered legislative work."[5] Nevertheless, she received a rare endorsement from the state League of Women Voters.[6]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | James K. Vardaman | 74,597 | 46.95% | |
Democratic | Hubert D. Stephens | 65,980 | 41.53% | |
Democratic | Belle Kearney | 18,303 | 11.52% | |
Total votes | 158,880 | 100.00% |
In the run-off, held September 5, both candidates vied for Kearney's primary voters, many of whom were women voting in a primary for the first time.[8] Ultimately, Kearney threw her support behind Stephens, and her voters were credited with defeating the Vardaman machine in Mississippi.[9]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Hubert D. Stephens | 95,351 | 52.33% | |
Democratic | James K. Vardaman | 86,853 | 47.67% | |
Total votes | 182,204 | 100.00% |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Democratic | Hubert D. Stephens | 63,636 | 93.21% | 6.79 | |
Republican | John H. Cook | 3,362 | 4.92% | N/A | |
Socialist | Hubert D. Stephens | 1,273 | 1.87% | N/A | |
Total votes | 68,271 | 100.00% |