The 1916 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 7, 1916.
Republican incumbent
Henry Cabot Lodge defeated Democratic Mayor of Boston
John F. Fitzgerald to win election to a fifth term.
This was the first United States Senate election in Massachusetts decided by popular vote, as required by the
Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Seventeenth Amendment (Amendment XVII) to the United States Constitution established the direct election of United States senators in each state. The amendment supersedes Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and2 of the Constitution, under wh ...
.
Republican primary
Candidates
*
Henry Cabot Lodge, incumbent Senator since 1893
Results
Democratic primary
Candidates
*
John F. Fitzgerald, former Mayor of Boston and U.S. Representative (grandfather of future President
John F. Kennedy)
Campaign
The Democratic state convention was held in Springfield on October 7. Fitzgerald addressed the convention, praising President Wilson and criticizing Lodge, his Senate colleague
John W. Weeks
John Wingate Weeks (April 11, 1860July 12, 1926) was an American banker and politician from Massachusetts. A Republican, he served as Mayor of Newton from 1902 to 1903, a United States representative from 1905 to 1913, United States Senator fr ...
, and former President
Theodore Roosevelt for opposing the President's re-election during war-time.
Results
General election
Candidates
*
John F. Fitzgerald, former Mayor of Boston and U.S. Representative (Democratic)
*
Henry Cabot Lodge, incumbent U.S. Senator since 1893 (Republican)
* William N. McDonald (Socialist)
Campaign
The first shot of the general election came in September, before the primary elections. At a Lodge campaign rally in Beverly, the Senator made no mention of Fitzgerald, but campaign backer Arthur Black criticized the former mayor's candidacy as a vanity run. Lodge focused his campaign on criticism of President Wilson and support for Republican nominee
Charles Evans Hughes.
Fitzgerald attacked Lodge for his opposition to the
direct election of Senators and the
Federal Employees' Compensation Act. He declared that "
odge'scareer shows a singular lack of touch with the people... it is for private interests that he has stood during his career."
Lodge also faced criticism over his charge of weakness against President Wilson's response to the sinking of the
RMS ''Lusitania''. Lodge was forced to withdraw his charge.
Results
Aftermath
In 1952, Fitzgerald's grandson
John F. Kennedy defeated Lodge's grandson
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr.
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (July 5, 1902 – February 27, 1985) was an American diplomat and Republican United States senator from Massachusetts in both Senate seats in non-consecutive terms of service and a United States ambassador. He was considered ...
to win election to this same Senate seat. Fitzgerald's daughter
Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy would say that her son John had "evened the score" with the Lodges and avenged her father's defeat. A final contest between the two families came in 1962, when
Ted Kennedy defeated
George C. Lodge
George Cabot Lodge II (born July 7, 1927) is an American professor and former politician. In 1962, he was the Republican nominee for a special election to succeed John F. Kennedy in the United States Senate, but was defeated by Ted Kennedy. He wa ...
for the same seat.
References
Bibliography
*
{{Massachusetts Elections
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled.
* ...
Massachusetts
1916 Massachusetts elections