1962 Texas gubernatorial election explained

Election Name:1962 Texas gubernatorial election
Country:Texas
Type:presidential
Election Date:November 6, 1962
Previous Election:1960 Texas gubernatorial election
Previous Year:1960
Next Election:1964 Texas gubernatorial election
Next Year:1964
Image1:File:John Connally (cropped).jpg
Nominee1:John Connally
Party1:Democratic Party (United States)
Popular Vote1:847,038
Percentage1:54.0%
Nominee2:Jack Cox
Party2:Republican Party (United States)
Popular Vote2:715,025
Percentage2:45.6%
Map Size:310px
Governor
Before Election:Price Daniel
Before Party:Democratic Party (United States)
After Election:John Connally
After Party:Democratic Party (United States)

The 1962 Texas gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1962, to elect the governor of Texas. Incumbent Democratic Governor Price Daniel was running for reelection to a fourth term, but was defeated in the primary by John Connally. Although Connally was easily elected, Republican Jack Cox's 46% of the vote was the highest received by any Republican candidate for governor since George C. Butte in 1924.

Democratic primary

Candidates

John Connally announced two weeks before Christmas of 1961 that he was leaving the position of Secretary of the Navy to seek the Democratic nomination. Former state Attorney General Will Wilson also entered the campaign, accusing Lyndon B. Johnson of engineering Connally's candidacy. Other primary candidates were highway commissioner Marshall Formby of Plainview, another party conservative, and General Edwin A. Walker, who made anti-communism the centerpiece of his campaign.[1]

Campaign

Democratic incumbent Marion Price Daniel, Sr. was running for a fourth consecutive two-year term, but was in political trouble following the enactment of a two-cent state sales tax in 1961, which had soured many voters on his administration. Daniel had let the tax become law without his signature, but chose not to veto the measure.

Runoff

Republican primary

Candidates

Democratic

Notes and References

  1. News: April 27, 1962 . Nation: Talking in Texas . time.com . dead . October 6, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071020045317/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896085,00.html#ixzz11d0RlxI2 . October 20, 2007.
  2. News: Parker. Tim. Whittenburg discards old rules in race for Senate. The Paris News. September 28, 1958. 21. subscription. March 19, 2024. NewspaperArchive.