1940 Missouri U.S. Senate Campaign

The 1940 Missouri U.S. Senate Campaign tested whether Harry S. Truman could win reelection after the collapse of Tom Pendergast’s political organization and amid determined efforts to portray him as its creature. Truman entered a race that looked bleak, faced attacks from Governor Stark and an uncertain party coalition, and won the primary by fewer than 8,000 votes. His subsequent general-election victory confirmed that the old organization’s diminished support, his own standing with voters, and help from allies could still combine into a formidable electoral force.

Background and Entry into the Race

The contest gathered force when Governor Stark announced in September that he would run for Truman’s Senate seat. The contrast between Stark’s route and Truman’s political position was plain: Stark had accepted Pendergast support in 1936, but now sought to distance himself from the machine that had helped elect him. Truman, meanwhile, faced the hardest campaign of his career. He privately recognized the odds, even as he publicly projected defiance.

Truman’s formal declaration came on February 3, 1940. He announced that he would seek reelection and opposed President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s pursuit of a third term, while naming Bennett Clark as his own presidential choice. The announcement exposed the strain between conviction and political calculation. Truman’s opposition to a third term was sincere: he believed that a republic should not depend on any one person’s life, health, or continued service. His choice of Clark, however, also served an immediate purpose, seeking support in eastern Missouri and expressing displeasure with Roosevelt, who had offered Truman no endorsement or campaign assistance. Truman said he would support Roosevelt if the president became the Democratic nominee, but the qualification did not conceal the tactical character of the maneuver.

A Campaign with Few Assured Allies

At the first strategy meeting in St. Louis in January, fewer than half of those invited appeared. Some came only to explain why they could not take an active part. Among those seriously committed were Truman’s old friend Roger Sermon, Harry Vaughan, John Snyder, and James K. Vardaman. Sermon warned that the outlook was extremely bleak. Truman did not ask the group to soften its assessment; he asked them to talk about how to elect him.

The absences mattered. Jim Aylward chose to sit out the campaign, and Joe Shannon had not decided whether to help. Jim Pendergast, unable to attend the meeting, sent word that if Truman received only two votes in the primary, one would be his and the other his wife’s. The pledge understated the work Jim Pendergast would eventually do: as the surviving head of what remained of the organization, he labored hard for Truman and delivered far more support than his quip suggested. The campaign thus began with a weak formal turnout but with a crucial local ally still willing to mobilize voters.

The three-way field echoed the 1934 contest. Maurice Milligan, the district attorney who had prosecuted Pendergast, entered believing he—not Governor Stark—deserved credit for bringing down the political boss and therefore deserved a Senate seat. Later speculation that Truman’s supporters had maneuvered Milligan into the race to divide Stark’s vote was never substantiated. Still, Milligan’s entry proved welcome to Truman. At first, Stark led, Milligan stood second, and Truman lagged far behind; as Milligan’s candidacy faded, the race became a direct contest between Stark and Truman.

Attacks, Restraint, and the Primary

Stark’s attack played into the campaign dynamic Truman had anticipated. He called Truman a Pendergast lackey, a rubber-stamp senator, and a fraudulent officeholder whose public career served a corrupt master. Truman held a letter in his files in which Stark had thanked him for an introduction to Tom Pendergast. Several campaign staff members urged him to publish it, believing it could settle the contest. Truman refused. Rather than answer Stark with the letter, he expected his opponent’s attacks to generate mistakes and chose to let Stark damage himself.

The contest remained close enough to make that restraint a high-stakes gamble. On election night, with returns showing Stark ahead by 11,000 votes, Truman’s family heard the count on the radio. Truman went to bed calmly predicting victory, while Bess and Margaret were in tears. A late-night call from campaign worker David Berenstein initially sounded to Bess like a cruel joke; he called again to report that Truman was carrying St. Louis. The eventual result was an exceptionally narrow primary win: Truman prevailed by just under 8,000 votes out of 665,000 cast.

St. Louis proved decisive. Truman’s margin over Stark there was 8,411 votes, with Bennett Clark’s support and Bob Hannegan’s last-minute work helping him carry the city. Truman also won the Black vote and improved among farmers compared with his 1934 campaign. Most strikingly, he carried Jackson County by 20,000 votes. That margin was only a fifth of his 1934 advantage there, but it contradicted the assumption that association with the Pendergasts had become fatal. Truman’s personal standing, Jim Pendergast’s work, and the remnants of the organization together outweighed the scandals, opponents’ charges, and hostile coverage in the Star.

Victory and Aftermath

Milligan congratulated Truman and promised to support him in the fall election. Truman, for his part, urged Roosevelt to restore Milligan to the district attorney’s job he had left in order to run. That gesture of fairness followed a campaign in which Milligan’s candidacy had helped shape the primary, though the proposed tactical purpose behind his entry remained unproven.

Truman also intervened against Governor Stark’s possible appointment to the Labor Mediation Board after Stark’s term as governor expired. Stark, who had seemed to be a rising political figure, withdrew from politics in disgust and never again held public office. Three days after the primary, Truman returned to a jubilant reception in the Senate, where colleagues greeted him and arranged a surprise lunch. In the fall general election, he defeated Republican Manvel Davis by 44,000 votes. The campaign’s two stages produced different measures of success: a razor-thin primary victory against a formidable intraparty opponent, followed by a resounding general-election win. Together they established that Truman could survive the Pendergast legacy without simply relying on the political machine that had once made his career.