McCarthy and Walter Goodland campaign poster, 1946

McCarthy and Walter Goodland campaign poster, 1946
OCHS # 2000.35.1

McCarthy beat Democratic candidate Howard McMurray by an almost two-to-one majority in the 1946 Senate race. Goodland won a third term as Wisconsin's governor.

 
Joe McCarthy is largely a self-made man who had to come up the hard way, but it made him strong of mind and body, and he will make a fine campaign, winning the voters away from

 

McCarthy ran against incumbent Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Jr., in the 1946 Republican primary. Wisconsinites had elected LaFollette to the Senate four times, for a total of 21 years. Supported by conservative members within the Republican Party, McCarthy ran an extensive campaign against LaFollette. He talked to and wrote thousands of residents. McCarthy's personal style so impressed voters that he unseated LaFollette by a narrow majority.


McCarthy defeated the Democratic candidate, Howard McMurray, in the general election, winning 70 of 73 counties in the state. McCarthy went to Washington as the Senate's youngest member at the age of 38. In the first few years, McCarthy fought for veteran housing and the end of wartime sugar restrictions.

PREVIOUS
NEXT
BACK TO MENU