1962 Alabama Senate election

The 1966 Alabama Senate election took place on Tuesday, November 8, 1966, to elect 35 representatives to serve four-year terms in the Alabama Senate. The result an electoral wipeout, as all 35 candidates elected were members of the Democratic Party. Across the 35 districts, only 6 seats were actually at stake in the November general election. As the Democratic Party was dominant in the state, state legislative seats were generally decided at the Democratic primary election. This was the first Senate election since a federal court ordered the first legislative reapportionment in the state since 1901.

The Democratic primaries were held on May 1 with a runoff on May 29. Due to late-term redistricting in July 1962, two special Democratic primaries had to be held on August 28 with runoffs on September 11. In the new District 22 (Blount–St. Clair), no candidate from either county won a Senate nomination in the regular Democratic primary, and the new District 30 (Dallas–Lowndes) had its regular primary in Lowndes County voided.^[1]

At the beginning of the 1963 session, George C. Hawkins of Etowah was unanimously elected president pro tempore.^[2]

For the 1962 election, the legislature adopted a new state senate map, the first reapportionment since 1901. A few counties were swapped around, but rural areas of the state still had an overwhelming advantage in terms of representation.^[3] The legislature would be forced to create a fairer senate map which would be in force by the 1966 general election.

Counties in italics were removed from the district, and counties in boldface were added. Districts and counties not listed here were not affected in the redistricting. 11 districts had their boundaries changed as a result of 8 county shuffles.

The table below will show the most-populated and least-populated senate districts under the 1901 and 1962 apportionment plans. The population of Alabama at the 1960 census was 3,266,740, with an ideal population of 93,335 people under a 35-district plan.

Every candidate elected with no opponents was a Democrat.

The first round of the special Democratic primary saw representative Rush "Doc" Smith beat out Roy H. Coshatt for the second-place spot in the runoff by a single vote. After the results were made official, Coshatt decided to contest the election results. His case was thrown out by the state Democratic executive committee, allowing Smith to advance to the September runoff.^[5] Smith lost the runoff by 442 votes to radio executive L. D. Bentley.

In the regular Senate primary in Lowndes County, the results were thrown out by the state Democratic executive committee amid allegations of voting irregularies.^[6] The official tally had Caswell McCurdy ahead of incumbent senator Carl Golson 936–934. The July redistricting plan saw the Dallas County and Lowndes County senate districts combine, and thus the winner of the Lowndes primary would face off against senator Walter C. Givhan, the winner of the Dallas primary, in August. Both McCurdy and Golson withdrew their claims to the Lowndes nomination, allowing Givhan to advance to the general election.^[7]

Candidates in boldface advanced to the general election. An asterisk (*) denotes a runoff winner who trailed in the first round.

Additionally, runoffs in District 32 and District 33 were planned, but were canceled after candidates withdrew from their races. Both withdrawals were from candidates who placed second in the first round.

• District 32: Charles Montgomery won the Democratic nomination after S. D. Bayer withdrew.^[9]
• District 33: John M. Tyson won the Democratic nomination after Thomas M. Galloway withdrew.^[10]

Candidates in boldface advanced to either the general election or a runoff, first-place winners with an asterisk (*) did not face a runoff.

The following candidates automatically won the Democratic nomination, as no opponent filed to run against them.

• District 20: E. O. Eddins (inc.)
• District 22: Roland Cooper (inc.)
• District 28: Vaughn Hill Robison (inc.)
• District 30: Walter C. Givhan (inc.)

A special election in Senate District 10 (Elmore–Tallapoosa) was triggered by the death of incumbent senator Carvel Woodall on February 19, 1959. The Democratic executive committee chose to nominate a candidate instead of holding a primary. Upshaw Jones, the runner-up in the 1958 Democratic primary, was the only candidate certified for the ballot, and thus the special general election was canceled.^[12]

A special election in District 4 (Madison) was triggered by the resignation of Dave Archer upon his appointment to a circuit judgeship in late 1961. James Record, the clerk-auditor of Madison County, was the only candidate certified for the ballot.^[13]

The second special election was triggered when the recently-elected James Record was appointed to the Madison County Board of Commissioners in March 1962. Record was succeeded by Billy Laxson.

• 1962 United States Senate election in Alabama
• 1962 United States House of Representatives elections in Alabama
• 1962 Alabama gubernatorial election