1948 Texas Senate Election (Identity War)

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. 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 far closer margin than usual for Texas Democrats. Much of this would be contributed to entry of former Democratic Senator Earle Bradford Mayfield a once powerful name in the reigns of Texas Politics during his tenure from 1922-1929. Still even factoring that in Johnson's share of the vote would be noticeably below Porter's who had amassed a sizable amount far above any Republican since the institution of Jim Crow. This would signal a loss of the Democratic Party's ironhold on even its strongest states as now not one but two major parties would gain viability in the territory. One other minor effect of this race would be the nickname bestowed to him by many detractors, "Lucked Out Lyndon" Due to the collapse of Mayfield's candidacy ultimately being the key to Johnson's victory. A name that would forever haunt the Texan and one he greatly despised.

After the split in the Democratic Party following the events of 1946, the States Rights Party would go on to establish footholds along the Solid South, but initially found trouble gaining momentum in states bordering the Deep South such as Texas, North Carolina, and Tennessee who were not as easily swept up in the Southern Manifesto as many of its contemporaries. Yet this would change when the former Texas Regulars, a group who had unsuccessfully attempted to take over Texas Democratic Party in 1944 and opposed Franklin Delano Roosevelt, would pledge their support to Righters. Tom Connally, both a major force in his home state and the nationwide party establishment acting as its leader in the Senate sought a potential candidate who could be the flag bearer and hopefully make gains from its powerful yet meager ten members. To his surprise, he would find an old adversary interested in running as the Party's nominee, the very man he defeated for his own seat in the Senate, Earle Bardford Mayfield. Mayfield a man who had remained politically inactive after a failed run for governor in 1930, suddenly found a new opportunity with the sudden emergence of this pro-segregationist party and jumped onto this new bandwagon. Although skeptical due to the man's open alignment with the Ku Klux Klan and their own personal history, Connally would end up supporting his former foe due to not only having long ties to the Democrats, but also serving in both State and National offices lending him a great deal of credibility and experience in comparison to both Johnson and Porter. This would be after both W. Lee O'Daniel and Martin Dies Jr. declined offers by Connally to run as their candidate.

The Republicans, who too smelled blood in the water, initially seemed ready to nominate Carlos G. Watson for the seat.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. Porter, both a successful businessman and longtime supporter of the Republican Party, was seen as the best chance to flip the once one-party state, and his conservative credentials made him perfect in the eyes of many Republicans both State and Nationwide during this time when Robert Taft had emerged as the Party's leader against President Wallace. This would only be helped after Coke Stevenson, the incumbent Senator at the time who had just lost a brutal primary to the Democratic Nominee Lyndon Johnson, would go on to support Porter as an act of revenge against what he believed was an invalid election. 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. and Porter also espoused a platform that included militant anti-communism, and a pro-business approach to tax and economic policy, and a continuation of the current racial policies that stood in Texas.

The Democrats meanwhile who suffered defections on both sides of the aisle found themselves for the first time in decades, actually in a fight to retain their Senate seat. But Johnson, a man who had been quoted as saying behind closed doors, "I'll do anything to win, even if it means choking a bastard out." Would go onto do just that. And he would have to as the whisperings of his victory over Stevenson continued to hound him right out the gate, along with the fact having to use up precious time campaigning to appeal the legal battle against Stevenson's lawyers who attempted to keep Johnson off the general election ballot. Johnson appealed, represented by his friend, Abe Fortas. Fortas, an extremely adept lawyer known for his support for liberal causes, argued that a federal court had no jurisdiction over a state primary election. 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.

General election
By October just when Johnson could finally campaign in earnest, polls showed he remained at a close Third with Porter both averaging around 28-30% in said polls. Meanwhile Mayfield carried the initial momentum managing to retain over 40% thanks to his history in the State Legislature and using his vast connections in Texas Politics to win over much of the establishment, found himself with a sizable lead only a month before the election. But Johnson, who many had described as manic and borderline insane, jumped into the action immediately using his Sikorsky S-51 helicopter to criss-cross the entire state in mere days. Despite the fact rest seemed like a suggestion at best to the Representative, Johnson's energy never swayed. Entirely focused on overcoming every obstacle before him, yet this would not be enough to make up the difference against Mayfield. Especially with both his opponents constantly portraying him as a corrupt candidate who had stolen Stevenson's rightful victory and a Negro Lover (censoring of the original wording) due to the National Democrats push on Civil Rights Legislation.

But Johnson would go on to use every ace in the hole he possessed. His personal relationship with George Berham Parr the most powerful of the Valley's party bosses along with many of his other pals to exert as much influence as possible along a number of counties. On top of this in a massive gamble, Johnson would have a number of his cronies tail Mayfield and Porter in an attempt to find any and all dirt on them. Alongside that he also dug up Mayfield's history, directly finding evidence of his ties to the former KKK at a time where the House of Un-American Activities began to come down on the potential resurgence of that organization at the behest of President Wallace and the recent skyrocketing of lynchings against African Americans. This would culminate in the, "Mayfield Surprise." Where one of Johnson's most faithful aides, Horace Busby would find evidence that even as far as 1943 Mayfield had kept in contact with the terrorist organization. Revealing it to the public only two weeks before the election, Mayfield's support would quickly dwindle as while many did support racial inequality, that coupled alongside various articles directly showing the barbaric murders taking place, and an even greater amount of scrutiny from the Federal Government once this story broke, had led many back to the Texas Democrats.