The 1926 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania was held on November 2, 1926. Republican incumbent George W. Pepper ran for a second term in office but was defeated in the Republican primary by U.S. representative and Philadelphia political boss William Scott Vare. Vare won the general election, defeating Democratic opponent William Bauchop Wilson. He was not permitted to assume office, however, until an investigation was conducted into possible election fraud and corruption. Vare was ultimately unseated in December 1929 by the Senate, following charges of corruption.
Despite Wilson's loss, this is the last time that the following counties have voted Democratic: Bradford, Cameron, Huntingdon, Lebanon, McKean, Perry, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, and Wyoming.
Background
1922 elections and Pennsylvania Republican factionalism
For many decades, the politics of Pennsylvania were controlled by a powerful Republican Party political machine based in Philadelphia and controlled by U.S. senators and political bosses Simon Cameron, J. Donald Cameron, Matthew Quay, and Boies Penrose in succession. On December 31, 1921, Penrose died in office (as had junior senator Philander C. Knox on October 12), creating a vacancy in both U.S. Senate seats.
Penrose died without an obvious successor, creating a power vacuum atop the Pennsylvania machine and setting off a struggle among at least three major factions:
- the Vare machine of South Philadelphia, built on African American and immigrant votes and led by William Scott Vare, the youngest of three wealthy brothers who controlled public contracts in the city through the state legislature and city hall;
- the Mellon banking family of Pittsburgh, which had little direct experience in electoral politics but was led by U.S. treasury secretary Andrew Mellon, the highest-ranking Republican in the state; and
- the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Association, led by Joseph R. Grundy, a Bristol textile manufacturer and leading advocate for protective tariffs.
In April 1922, the various factions held a conference at Philadelphia to negotiate a unity ticket, led by Pennsylvania attorney general George E. Alter for governor and Pittsburgh lawyer David A. Reed and Philadelphia professor George W. Pepper for Senate. The ticket was generally balanced between eastern Pennsylvania (represented by Vare) and western Pennsylvania (represented by William Larimer Mellon Sr. and Pittsburgh boss Max G. Leslie), and the only factional leader disappointed in the result was Grundy, who instead supported an anti-machine ticket led by progressive Gifford Pinchot for governor.
Both Reed and Pepper easily won their primaries, but Pinchot upset Alter by fewer than 15,000 votes, owing partly to Grundy's endorsement and weak voter turnout for Alter in Allegheny County. Alter's losses in Allegheny, along with difficulty delivering votes for W. Harry Baker in the election for state party chair, demonstrated political weakness on the part of the Pittsburgh machine, enhancing the power of Philadelphia, which typically accounted for half of the statewide Republican vote.
Factional struggle dominated the Pennsylvania Republican Party, with the added complication of Governor Pinchot, who opposed all factions. This period was marked by a series of victories by the machine over Pinchot and by William Scott Vare, by now sole boss of the Philadelphia machine and expected challenger to Pepper in 1926, over the Mellon family and the Pittsburgh machine:
- In 1924, Pinchot, an ardent prohibitionist, called for a special counsel investigation into the Bureau of Internal Revenue, controlled by Treasury secretary Andrew Mellon, for allegedly lax enforcement of the Volstead Act; in response, the state party defeated Pinchot's campaign for delegate at-large to the 1924 Republican National Convention.
- Despite the landslide victory for Calvin Coolidge in the 1924 presidential election, about ten percent of Allegheny County voters abandoned the party ticket in favor of senator Robert M. La Follette. Despite massive fundraising efforts for Coolidge and Andrew actively campaigning for the ticket, the Mellon family was further weakened versus the Philadelphia machine.
- The Pittsburgh machine was divided by a bitter conflict between mayor William A. Magee and party boss Max G. Leslie, who supported Charles H. Kline. Senator Reed remained neutral in the 1925 mayoral primary, and W. L. Mellon left the state for a fishing trip to Canada. The mayoral campaign ended with Magee's withdrawal from the race, but the protracted intraparty struggle further handicapped Pepper's political base entering the 1926 campaign.
Campaign spending regulations
Constitutional issues around the regulation of campaign spending were central to the debate over the election.
In 1918, the Senate had refused to seat Truman H. Newberry on the grounds that his large primary campaign expenditures violated the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). However, the Supreme Court of the United States declared the Act null and void in Newberry v. United States on May 2, 1921, because the constitution did not give Congress the authority to regulate campaigns for nomination to federal office, and Newberry was awarded his seat.
In response to the Newberry decision, Congress revised the FCPA in 1921 to specifically exclude campaigns for party nominations and limit general election spending to $10,000 or an amount "equal to the amount obtained by multiplying three cents by the total number of votes cast at the last general election for all candidates for the office which the candidate seeks, but in no event exceeding $25,000 if a candidate for Senator," excluding expenses for state fees, personal expenses, travel expenses, food and drink, stationery, printing, mailing, and telephone fees. The amended 1921 Act also expressly forbade nationally chartered banks and corporations from contributing to any political campaign and required candidates to file complete reports of expenditures with the secretary of the United States Senate at stated intervals within five days of the election.
Republican primary
Candidates
- George W. Pepper, incumbent U.S. senator since 1922
- Gifford Pinchot, governor of Pennsylvania and former chief of the United States Forest Service
- William Scott Vare, U.S. representative from Philadelphia
Campaign
In September 1925, efforts to agree on a machine candidate began in earnest with a series of meetings were held in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. to settle the conflict between Pepper and Vare; however, no agreement could be reached. The decisive conference was held in March 1926 at the Washington home of Andrew Mellon and attended by W. L. Mellon, David A. Reed, Pittsburgh boss Max G. Leslie, party chair W. Harry Baker, and the candidates. Joseph R. Grundy joined via telephone. At the conference, the Pepper supporters offered Vare his choice of governor in exchange for his withdrawal; Vare rejected the offer and refused to attend the second day of meetings, instead visiting Calvin Coolidge at the White House. Believing Coolidge would remain neutral in the primary and the Pittsburgh machine was insignificant, Vare left Washington confident in victory over both Pinchot and the diminished western Pennsylvanians, as well as his ability to carry Edward E. Beidleman to victory in the primary for governor.
On March 24, 1926, the Mellon family formally announced their endorsements for Pepper and for John Stuchell Fisher in the gubernatorial election. In endorsing Fisher, the Mellons realigned themselves with Grundy and broke from Leslie, who supported Beidleman. In effect, the Mellon–Grundy alliance pitted the state's two leading fundraisers against the state's two leading political machines. The Mellons spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the campaign to flood mailboxes and saturate news media with advertisements for Pepper and Fisher. William Larimer Mellon claimed that the family "have not gotten into the campaign in an attempt to become bosses but for the preservation of principles." Grundy initially abstained from publicly supporting Pepper, offering his endorsement and $615,000 in campaign funding to Fisher only; however, one month before the primary, he met with William Larimer Mellon at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia and agreed to back Pepper in exchange for the Mellons' support of Fisher.
In May, Reed and U.S. labor secretary James J. Davis, a former steelworker, held a major rally in Pittsburgh for Pepper. Mellon himself addressed the rally, giving the only explicitly political speech of his life, emphasizing his and the administration's continued support for Pepper.
Endorsements
George W. Pepper (incumbent)
- Andrew Mellon, U.S. secretary of the treasury
- James J. Davis, U.S. secretary of labor
- David A. Reed, senior U.S. senator from Pennsylvania
Results
In the largest primary in the history of Pennsylvania, Vare defeated Pepper by over 80,000 votes.
Analysis
Senator David A. Reed attributed the result to the issue of prohibition, with Pepper and Pinchot dividing the majority of Pennsylvania Republicans who supported the policy. Pepper himself attributed the defeat to various elements, including the unplanned alliance with Fisher and Grundy, who won the gubernatorial primary but had alienated many of Pepper's former supporters. The New Republic interpreted the results as a rebuke to Coolidge and Mellon.
Aftermath
On May 17, the United States Senate established the Special Committee Investigating Senatorial Campaign Expenditures, chaired by James A. Reed of Missouri, to investigate the Pennsylvania and Illinois primaries. Reed's initial investigation into Pennsylvania focused on the Mellons, revealing the campaign had received contributions from each of Andrew, William, and Richard B. Mellon of about $25,000 (equivalent to approximately $363,529 in 2025) to the Pepper–Fisher joint campaign, had raised over $300,000 (approximately $4,362,345 in 2025) in the Pittsburgh area alone, and spent nearly $2 million (approximately $29.08 million in 2025) throughout Pennsylvania.
As a concession to the Mellons, Vare consented to the election of William Larimer Mellon as state party chairman.
Democratic primary
Candidates
- William Bauchop Wilson, former U.S. labor secretary
Prohibition primary
Candidates
- Elisha Kent Kane
- Gifford Pinchot, governor of Pennsylvania and former chief of the United States Forest Service
Candidates
Labor primary
Candidates
- George W. Pepper, incumbent U.S. senator since 1922
- Gifford Pinchot, governor of Pennsylvania and former chief of the United States Forest Service
- William Scott Vare, U.S. representative from Philadelphia
General election
Candidates
- A. J. Carey (Workers)
- Elisha K. Kane (Prohibition)
- Robert Colvin Macauley Jr. (Commonwealth Land)
- George W. Snyder (Socialist)
- William Scott Vare, U.S. representative from Philadelphia (Republican)
- William Bauchop Wilson, former U.S. labor secretary (Democratic)
Campaign
Although the general election was less eventful than the primary, with the Republican factions consolidating in support of Vare, rumors of electoral fraud continued through the fall in parallel to the Reed Committee investigation into campaign finances.
Aftermath, investigation, and expulsion
Reed Committee report and challenge
On December 22, the Reed Committee issued its report on the primary and general elections in Pennsylvania, finding that the Vare–Beidleman campaign had spent $788,934, as opposed to $1,804,979 for the Pepper–Fisher ticket, $187,029 for Pinchot, and only $10,088 for Wilson on the Democratic ticket. Although expenditures on behalf of Vare were far less than on behalf of Pepper, the Senate concluded that they were too large to admit Vare to his seat; when he presented his credentials, he was refused the oath of office until a more detailed investigation was completed.
On January 10, 1927, Pinchot complicated the contest further including a criticism of Vare in the customary letter of certification of the Senate race to Coolidge. Although Pinchot stated that Vare had been elected on the face of the returns, he argued that Vare was not "duly chosen" because "his nomination was partly bought and partly stolen." The Pinchot letter was taken as the strongest evidence against seating Vare, and it was treated by some progressives as conclusive evidence that Vare had won through fraud. On March 4, Wilson charged that Vare-controlled election boards in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh had counted him out by completely ignoring his votes, arguing that he was legally entitled to the seat over Vare.