1964 United States Senate election in Massachusetts

1964 United States Senate election in Massachusetts

← 1962 (special) November 3, 1964 1970 →

Nominee Ted Kennedy Howard J. Whitmore, Jr. Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 1,716,907 587,663 Percentage 74.26% 25.42%

Municipal Results

U.S. senator before election Ted Kennedy Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy Democratic

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The 1964 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 3, 1964, with the incumbent Democratic senator, Ted Kennedy, defeating his challengers. Much of the campaign-appearance burden on behalf of Ted Kennedy fell on his wife, Joan, because of Ted's serious back injury in a plane crash.

Democratic primary[]

Candidates[]

• Ted Kennedy, incumbent Senator

Results[]

Senator Kennedy was unopposed for renomination.

1964 Democratic U.S. Senate primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Ted Kennedy (incumbent)	608,791	99.99
	Write-in	All others	32	0.01
Total votes			608,823	100.00

Republican primary[]

Candidates[]

• Howard J. Whitmore, Jr., former State Representative and Mayor of Newton^[1]

Results[]

Whitmore was unopposed for the Republican nomination.

1964 Republican U.S. Senate primary

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Howard J. Whitmore, Jr.	172,078	99.95
	Write-in	All others	86	0.05
Total votes			172,164	100.00

Independents and third parties[]

Socialist Workers[]

• Lawrence Gilfedder, perennial candidate^[2]

Prohibition[]

• Grace F. Luder, candidate for Congress in 1950 and 1952^[3]

Results[]

1964 U.S. Senate election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Ted Kennedy (incumbent)	1,716,907	74.26	21.30
	Republican	Howard J. Whitmore, Jr.	587,663	25.42	19.08
	Socialist Labor	Lawrence Gilfedder	4,745	0.21	0.03
	Prohibition	Grace F. Luder	2,700	0.12	0.05
	Write-in	All others	13	0.00
Total votes			1,202,856	100.00

See also[]

• United States Senate elections, 1964

External links[]

• Race details at ourcampaigns.com

References[]

Notes

Sources

• Campaigning from a Hospital Bed Recordings of Telephone Calls between Edward Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson during the 1964 campaign