1913 United States Senate special election in Maryland

Maryland special election

November 4, 1913
Turnout	198,205
Nominee Blair Lee Thomas Parran Sr. Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 112,485 73,300 Percentage 56.75% 36.98%
U.S. senator before election William P. Jackson Republican Elected U.S. senator Blair Lee Democratic

A Special Election to the United States Senate was held in Maryland on November 4, 1913 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sen. Isidor Rayner (a Democrat). The election was the second Senate election (after a June 1913 late election in Georgia) held under the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which required direct election of senators, but it was the first in which the election was contested by multiple parties.

Blair Lee I, a Democrat and former state senator, became the second U.S. Senator directly elected by the people of a state under the Constitution's provisions (although other states had previously elected senators indirectly through party primaries and popular elections, which were then ratified by the state legislature). The election led to a controversy when the incumbent who had been appointed to fill Rayner's seat, Republican William P. Jackson, refused to give up his seat to Lee. Jackson claimed that "since he had been appointed under the original constitutional provision, he was entitled to hold his seat until the regularly scheduled adjournment date of the Maryland state assembly." The Senate considered Jackson's challenge but eventually rejected it and seated Lee.

Results

1913 Maryland U.S. Senate special election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Democratic	Blair Lee	112,485	56.75%	n/a
	Republican	Thomas Parran Sr.	73,300	36.98%	n/a
	Progressive	George Wellington	7,033	3.55%	n/a
	Socialist	Robert Fields	2,982	1.5%	n/a
	Prohibition	Finley Hendrickson	2,405	1.21%	n/a
Turnout			198,205