The 1944 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts was held on November 7, 1944 to complete the unexpired term of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who had resigned from the Senate to serve in World War II. Republican governor Leverett Saltonstall defeated Cambridge mayor John H. Corcoran in a landslide.
Primary elections were held on July 10. Saltonstall was unopposed for the Republican nomination, while Corcoran won a highly competitive race for the Democratic nomination in which all four candidates came from Boston or Cambridge.
At the time, Saltonstall's margin of victory was the largest ever recorded by a candidate for statewide office in Massachusetts.
Background
Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. resigned from the Senate on February 3, 1944, to return to active duty in the U.S. Army during World War II.
Despite initial reporting that Leverett Saltonstall would resign as governor so that lieutenant governor Horace T. Cahill could succeed him and appoint him to the vacant seat, Saltonstall opted not to resign. Instead, on February 8, Saltonstall appointed Sinclair Weeks, whom Lodge had narrowly defeated for the Senate nomination at the Republican state convention in 1936.
A special election was scheduled on November 7, concurrent with the regularly scheduled 1944 elections.
Republican primary
Candidates
- Leverett Saltonstall, governor of Massachusetts since 1939
Declined
- Sinclair Weeks, interim U.S. senator since February 3
Results
Governor Saltonstall was unopposed for the Republican nomination.
Democratic primary
Candidates
- John H. Corcoran, mayor of Cambridge
- Joseph A. Langone Jr., former state senator
- Joseph Lee, former member of the Boston School Committee
- Richard M. Russell, former U.S. representative and mayor of Cambridge
General election
Candidates
- John H. Corcoran, mayor of Cambridge since 1942 (Democratic)
- Bernard G. Kelly, nominee for Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1942 and Auditor in 1940 (Socialist Labor)
- E. Tallmadge Root, nominee for Governor of Massachusetts in 1940 (Prohibition)
- Leverett Saltonstall, Governor of Massachusetts since 1939 (Republican)
Results
Though he was entitled to be seated immediately upon the certification of the election, Saltonstall did not take office until January 4, 1945, when his term as Governor ended.