1906_South_Carolina_gubernatorial_election
1906 South Carolina gubernatorial election
Election
The 1906 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 1906, to select the governor of the state of South Carolina, United States. Martin Frederick Ansel won the Democratic primary and ran unopposed in the general election to become the 89th governor of South Carolina.
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The South Carolina Democratic Party held its primary for governor on August 28 and Martin Frederick Ansel emerged as the frontrunner. Ansel was vocal in his opposition to the Dispensary system set up by Ben Tillman and instead favored the local county option established by the Bryce law in 1904. His chief rival, progressive reformer Richard Irvine Manning III, sought to maintain a statewide Dispensary and work to remove all the corrupt officials in it. The public sentiment at the time felt that nobody with even the best intentions could clean up the Dispensary and therefore Ansel won the Democratic runoff on September 11 against Manning. He essentially became the next governor of South Carolina because there was no opposition in the general election.
| Democratic Primary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % |
| Martin Frederick Ansel | 39,850 | 41.2 |
| Richard Irvine Manning III | 23,008 | 23.8 |
| Coleman Livingston Blease | 16,801 | 17.4 |
| J.E. Brunson | 9,982 | 10.3 |
| John T. Sloan | 3,348 | 3.5 |
| John Joseph McMahan | 2,231 | 2.3 |
| A.C. Jones | 898 | 0.9 |
| W.A. Edwards | 530 | 0.6 |
| Democratic Primary Runoff | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Votes | % | ±% |
| Martin Frederick Ansel | 47,638 | 56.1 | +14.9 |
| Richard Irvine Manning III | 37,245 | 43.9 | +20.1 |
The general election was held on November 6, 1906, and Martin Frederick Ansel was elected the next governor of South Carolina without opposition. Being a non-presidential election and few contested races, turnout was much less than the previous gubernatorial election.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Martin Frederick Ansel | 30,251 | 100.0 | 0.0 | |
| Majority | 30,251 | 100.0 | 0.0 | ||
| Turnout | 30,251 | ||||
| Democratic hold | |||||
- Jordan, Frank E. The Primary State: A History of the Democratic Party in South Carolina, 1876-1962. pp. 25–26.
- Ball, William Watts (1932). The State That Forgot; South Carolina's Surrender to Democracy. The Bobbs-Merrill Company. pp. 254, 256–257.
- "Primary Results Declared". The News and Courier. September 1, 1906. p. 1.
- "Election Returns All In". The News and Courier. September 14, 1906. p. 1.
| Preceded by 1904 |
South Carolina gubernatorial elections | Succeeded by 1908 |