1940 Missouri Senate election

The 1940 Missouri Senate election was a close Democratic primary contest in which Harry S. Truman defeated Governor Lloyd C. Stark and secured his Senate seat. Its result seemed uncertain until late in the night: Stark led in the early returns, but Truman ultimately won by fewer than 8,000 votes out of 665,000 cast. The victory showed that Truman retained a substantial political base even as scandal, hostile press coverage, and charges of machine influence threatened to make his associations a liability.

Background and Stakes

Truman’s position was complicated by the political scandal surrounding the Pendergast organization. His opponents’ charges and the relentless opposition of The Kansas City Star made his ties to the local organization a conspicuous vulnerability. Stark later described the outcome as the product of machine support and federal patronage, alleging that federal appointees, including postmasters and Works Progress Administration workers, had helped Truman. He also blamed the failure of his rural vote on a severe drought. These were Stark’s explanations for defeat, not an uncontested account of why voters chose as they did.

The contest also tested Truman’s standing beyond the organization with which he was associated. The results showed that the scandal had not erased his support among voters: he carried Jackson County by 20,000 votes, despite the belief that anyone connected with the Pendergasts was finished there. His margin in the county was much smaller than in his 1934 campaign, but it remained decisive in the place where the organization’s support mattered most.

Election Night

The returns initially made a Truman victory look doubtful. At about eleven o’clock, Stark held an 11,000-vote lead. Truman’s friend Edgar Hinde answered his apparent concession with the reminder that there was still a long time until morning. Margaret Truman later remembered her father calmly announcing that he would win, even as she and Bess Truman listened to the returns on the radio and feared the result. For Bess, the night was among the worst of her life; both she and Margaret were in tears.

A call from St. Louis changed the household’s understanding of the count. David Berenstein, a campaign worker there, telephoned to congratulate the wife of Missouri’s senator. Bess took the message for a bad joke and hung up. When Berenstein called back, he explained the reason: Truman was carrying St. Louis. The city’s returns helped reverse the picture suggested by Stark’s early lead. In the final count Truman won by not quite 8,000 votes, and his margin over Stark in St. Louis was 8,411.

The Coalition Behind the Result

Truman’s victory rested on a combination of support across different groups and places. He carried the Black vote and did better with farmers than he had in 1934. His Jackson County margin, though only a fifth of what it had been in that earlier race, demonstrated the continuing force of his local support. The account also credits Bennett Clark and Robert E. Hannegan with last-minute work in St. Louis, where Truman’s margin exceeded his statewide lead. The outcome therefore cannot be reduced to one county or one organization: the decisive result joined a strong local base with support elsewhere, including the city vote.

That coalition also gave the result a pointed significance. The scandal and the opposition of The Kansas City Star had not prevented Truman from winning in the county where his connection to the Pendergast organization was most exposed. His personal standing with voters, work by Jim Pendergast and the remnants of the organization, and votes beyond Jackson County all contributed to a victory that Stark’s accusations could not undo.

Aftermath and Significance

Stark made no public statement about the defeat, but in private correspondence with Franklin D. Roosevelt he attributed it to the machine vote, Clark’s support, federal employees, and the drought’s effect on rural turnout. The account presents those explanations alongside the election’s broader pattern: Truman carried St. Louis, won the Black vote, improved among farmers, and retained a 20,000-vote advantage in Jackson County. Stark’s account emphasized organization and patronage; the returns also showed that Truman’s appeal extended beyond the narrowest version of that explanation.

The defeat ended Stark’s political career. After his term as governor expired, Truman learned that Roosevelt was considering Stark for a position on the Labor Mediation Board and saw to it that Stark did not receive the appointment. Stark withdrew from politics and never again held public office. For Truman, meanwhile, the close result was a remarkable demonstration that the scandals and accusations had not severed his connection to the electorate. The election’s drama lay not in an overwhelming mandate, but in the late reversal of a lead that had seemed to put his political future in doubt.