The 1952 United States Senate election in New York was held on November 4. Incumbent Republican Senator Irving M. Ives was re-elected to a second term in office over Democrat

John Cashmore John Cashmore (June 7, 1895 – May 7, 1961) was an American politician from New York City who served as Borough President of Brooklyn from 1940 until his death in 1961. Career Business Cashmore was an aide to the general manager of the New ...

with a then-record margin of victory.

Democratic nomination

Candidates

, Brooklyn Borough President *Stanley W. Church, Mayor of

New Rochelle New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

*Peter J. Crotty, former President of the Buffalo City Council *Edward H. Foley Jr., Undersecretary of the Treasury * W. Averell Harriman, Director of the

Mutual Security Agency The Mutual Security Agency (1951–1953) was a US agency to strengthen European allies of World War II through military assistance and economic recovery. History The Mutual Security Agency was established by the passing of the Mutual Security Ac ...

and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1946–48) *Donald W. Kramer, Mayor of

Binghamton Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Robert Ferdinand Wagner II (April 20, 1910 – February 12, 1991) was an American politician who served three terms as the mayor of New York City from 1954 through 1965. When running for his third term, he broke with the Tammany Hall leadership ...

, Manhattan Borough President

Convention

The Democratic State Convention was held at the Commodore Hotel in Manhattan on August 28. A welcoming speech was delivered by Mayor

Vincent Impellitteri Vincent Richard Impellitteri (born Vincenzo Impellitteri; February 4, 1900 – January 29, 1987) was an American politician and judge who served as the 101st Mayor of New York City, 1950–53. He was elected as a Democrat as president of the Cit ...

. Before the candidates were announced, presidential candidate

Adlai Stevenson II Adlai Ewing Stevenson II (; February 5, 1900 – July 14, 1965) was an American politician and diplomat who was twice the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. He was the grandson of Adlai Stevenson I, the 23rd vice president of ...

addressed the delegates. John Cashmore was nominated on the first ballot. He overcame five avowed candidates, including Manhattan Borough President

, who had been the favorite for the seat only weeks before. Cashmore also rejected a last-minute proposal by party chairman Paul E. Fitzpatrick that he and the other leading candidates would withdraw in an effort to draft W. Averell Harriman into the race. Harriman had recently been an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for President and had publicly stated he would not run for Senator. However, Fitzpatrick believed that the Liberal Party, which openly preferred Harriman or Wagner, would refuse to support Cashmore. Cashmore, certain of his chances even without Liberal support, declined. After it became clear that Cashmore had a majority on the first ballot, Wagner moved to make his nomination unanimous, and county delegations began to switch to him en masse. Before switches, the first ballot stood as follows: Cashmore had solid support from his native

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

and the

Capital District A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any politica ...

. Wagner's support came from

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

, and Buffalo. Cashmore also took twelve crucial votes in Wagner's native Manhattan, delivered to him by renegade West Side leader Robert B. Blaikie. Westchester, which was expected to be solidly for its native son Stanley Church, had not yet voted before it became clear Cashmore would win; the county voted for Cashmore instead, beginning the stampede. Cashmore made an acceptance speech in which he assailed Senator Ives for playing to the reactionary base of the Republican Party despite his publicly avowed progressivism.

Liberal nomination

The

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

met on August 28 and formally nominated Dr. George S. Counts, Professor of Education at Teachers College,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Counts's nomination was intended to be temporary, as the Liberal Party usually cross-endorsed the Democratic nominee. However, the nomination of John Cashmore proved untenable for the Liberals, and in early September they chose to stick by Counts as their candidate. The party considered endorsing Senator Ives but decided against such an endorsement due to Ives's vote for the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947. Counts himself chose not to withdraw from the race before the deadline of September 5, after Cashmore rejected a proposal that they both drop out in favor of Averell Harriman.

General election

Campaign

Results

The Republican incumbent Ives was re-elected with the then-largest margin in state history.

Sources

*Official result
''FINAL STATE COUNT GIVES RECORD VOTE; Eisenhower Carried New York by 848,214 Margin as Total of 7,216,054 Cast Ballots''
in NYT on December 9, 1952 (subscription required)