1913 United States Senate special election in Maryland


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. The election was the second Senate election 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. 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.

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