Lyndon B. Johnson

===1948 U.S. Senate election===
{{Main|1948 United States Senate election in Texas}}

In the [[1948 United States Senate election in Texas|1948 elections]], Johnson again ran for the Senate and won the general election after being declared winner in a highly controversial Democratic Party [[primary election]] against the well-known former governor [[Coke Stevenson]]. Johnson drew crowds to fairgrounds with his rented helicopter, dubbed "The Johnson City Windmill". He raised money to flood the state with campaign circulars and won over conservatives by casting doubts on Stevenson's support for the [[Taft–Hartley Act]] (curbing union power). Stevenson came in first in the primary but lacked a majority, so a runoff election was held; Johnson campaigned harder, while Stevenson's efforts slumped due to a lack of funds.

The runoff vote count, handled by the Democratic State Central Committee, took a week. Johnson was announced the winner by 87 votes out of 988,295, an extremely narrow margin. However, Johnson's victory was based on 200 "patently fraudulent"<ref name="baum">{{cite journal |title=Lyndon Johnson's Victory in the 1948 Texas Senate Race: A Reappraisal |journal=[[Political Science Quarterly]] |volume=109 |issue=4 |pages=595–613 |date=Autumn 1994 |author=Dale Baum and James L. Hailey |quote=To the east in neighboring Jim Wells County{{snd}}home of the notorious Box 13, which happened to be the only box in the county dominated by Parr's operatives{{snd}}LBJ managed to acquire, according to the estimates, a four-percentage-point net gain over Stevenson, or about only 387 votes (of which at least two hundred were patently fraudulent). |jstor=2151840 |doi=10.2307/2151840}}</ref>{{rp|608}} ballots reported six days after the election from [[Box 13 scandal|Box 13]] in [[Jim Wells County, Texas|Jim Wells County]], in an area dominated by political boss [[George Berham Parr|George Parr]]. The added names were in alphabetical order and written with the same pen and handwriting, at the end of the list of voters. Some on this part of the list insisted that they had not voted that day.<ref>{{harvnb|Caro|1990|pp=360–361}}</ref> Election judge Luis Salas said in 1977 that he had certified 202 fraudulent ballots for Johnson.<ref name="'70s">{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link=David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York City |isbn=978-0-465-04195-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum}}</ref> [[Robert Caro]] made the case in his 1990 book that Johnson had stolen the election in Jim Wells County, and that there were thousands of fraudulent votes in other counties as well, including 10,000 votes switched in [[San Antonio]].<ref>{{harvnb|Woods|2006|p=217}}</ref> The Democratic State Central Committee voted to certify Johnson's nomination by a majority of one (29–28). The state Democratic convention upheld Johnson. Stevenson went to court, eventually taking his case before the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]], but with timely help from his friend and future U.S. Supreme Court Justice [[Abe Fortas]], Johnson prevailed on the basis that jurisdiction over naming a nominee rested with the party, not the federal government. Johnson soundly defeated Republican [[Homa J. Porter|Jack Porter]] in the general election in November and went to Washington, permanently dubbed "Landslide Lyndon". Johnson, dismissive of his critics, happily adopted the nickname.<ref>{{harvnb|Dallek|1991|p=346}}</ref>