# 1928 United States Senate election in New Jersey

Elections in New Jersey :
Federal government
U.S. President
1788-89
1792
1796
1800
1804
1808
1812
1816
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
Dem
2008
Rep
Dem
2012
2016
Dem
2020
Dem
2024
Dem
Rep
U.S. Senate
1788
1790
1790 (sp)
1792
1796
1796 (sp)
1798
1799 (sp)
1801 (sp)
1803 (sp)
1804
1808
1809
1809 (sp)
1810
1815
1816 (sp)
1817
1820
1823
1823 (sp)
1826
1826 (sp)
1829
1829 (sp)
1833
1835
1839
1840
1845
1846
1851
1853 (sp)
1857
1858
1863 (sp)
1864
1866 (sp)
1867 (sp)
1869
1875
1877
1881
1883
1886
1889
1893
1895
1899
1901
1902 (sp)
1905
1907
1911
1913
1916
1918
1918 (sp)
1922
1924
1928
1930
1930 (sp)
1932 (sp)
1934
1936
1938 (sp)
1940
1942
1944 (sp)
1948
1954
1958
1960
1964
1966
1970
1972
1976
1978
1982
1984
1988
1990
1994
1996
2000
2002
2006
2008
2012
2013 (sp)
2014
2018
2020
2024
2026
U.S. House of Representatives
1789
1791
1792
1794
1795 (sp AL)
1797
1798
1800
1803
1804
1806
1808 (sp AL)
1808
1810 (sp AL)
1810
1814 (sp 3rd)
1813
1814
1816
1818
1820
1821 (sp AL)
1822
1824
1826
1828
1828 (sp AL)
1830
1832
1834
1836
1836
1838
1840
1842
1844
1846
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1913 (sp 6th)
1914
1916
1920
1924
1926
1928
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1948
1950
1951 (sp 9th)
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1968
1972
1980
1984
1988
1988 (sp 3rd)
1990
1990 (sp 1st)
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2006
2006 (5th)
2006 (12th)
2008
2010
2012
2012 (sp 10th)
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
2024 (sp 10th)
2026 :
State government
General elections
2009
2010
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
2025
Gubernatorial elections
1843
1844
1847
1850
1853
1856
1859
1862
1865
1868
1871
1874
1877
1880
1883
1886
1889
1892
1895
1898
1901
1904
1907
1910
1913
1916
1919
1922
1925
1928
1931
1934
1937
1940
1943
1946
1949
1953
1957
1961
1965
1969
1973
1977
1981
1985
1989
1993
1997
2001
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021
2025
Senate elections
1873
1957
1959
1961
1963
1965
1967
1971
1973
1977
1981
1983
1987
1991
1993
1997
2001
2003
2007
2011
2013
2017
2021
2023
General Assembly elections
1985
1987
1989
1991
2015
2017
2019
2021
2023
2025 :
Newark
Mayoral elections
1970
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022 :
Jersey City
Mayoral elections
2001
2004
2005
2009
2013
2017
2021
2025 :
Hoboken
Mayoral elections
2005
2017
2021 :
Atlantic City
Mayoral elections
2017
2021 :
vte :
The United States Senate election of 1928 in New Jersey was held on November 6, 1928. Incumbent Democratic Senator Edward I. Edwards ran for re-election to a second term in office, but was defeated by Hamilton Fish Kean in a landslide. This was the third of four straight elections to this seat in which the incumbents were defeated.

## Democratic primary
### Candidates

* Edward I. Edwards, incumbent Senator since 1923

### Results

Senator Edwards was unopposed for the re-nomination.
1928 Democratic U.S. Senate primary :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Democratic | Edward I. Edwards (incumbent) | 153,528 | 100.0% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 153,528 | 100.0% |

## Republican primary
### Candidates

* Lillian Feickert, suffragette, former vice-chair of the New Jersey Republican Party, and prohibition activist
* Joseph Frelinghuysen, former U.S. Senator (1917–23)
* Edward W. Gray, former U.S. Representative from Jersey City (1915–19)
* Hamilton Fish Kean, member of the Republican National Committee and candidate for Senate in 1924
* Edward C. Stokes, former Governor of New Jersey (1905–08)

### Campaign

In June 1924, former Senator Joseph Frelinghuysen declined to run for the U.S. Senate and announced his intention to run in this election instead.
In June 1927, party chair and former Governor Edward C. Stokes entered the race after failing to convince Frelinghuysen and Hamilton Fish Kean to step aside for a compromise candidate. Frelinghuysen derided Stokes for having no particular candidate in mind.
Kean formally announced his entry into the race on January 19, claiming that President Calvin Coolidge had advised him to run.
Lillian Feickert and Edward W. Gray ran peripheral campaigns focused on the issue of prohibition; Feickert supported prohibition and Gray was opposed. Feickert ran as the sole "dry" candidate.

### Endorsements

* Clarence Case, New Jersey Senator for Somerset County
* Somerset County Republican Party
* Enoch L. Johnson
* Walter Evans Edge, United States Senator from New Jersey

### Campaign spending

In February, Frelinghuysen claimed that other candidates were spending too freely and risking an investigation by James Reed's Senate committee on campaign spending, which had begun investigations into the elections of William Scott Vare and Frank L. Smith. (Both would ultimately be expelled.) Most observers took this as an attack on Kean.
Kean, Frelinghuysen, and Stokes were all called to testify before the Reed committee in early June. Both Kean and Frelinghuysen testified that they donated the maximum $50,000 to their campaigns and did not accept outside funding; Kean repudiated charges from the committee that he had issued a "blank check."
Kean claimed $49,366.30 in spending. Frelinghuysen claimed $48,774.97. Stokes testified that he had raised 16,355, of which he contributed $3,000 personally. He claimed to have spent only $14,609.

### Results

1928 Republican U.S. Senate primary :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Republican | Hamilton Fish Kean | 167,029 | 33.57% |
| | Republican | Edward C. Stokes | 142,123 | 28.56% |
| | Republican | Joseph S. Frelinghuysen | 137,440 | 27.62% |
| | Republican | Lillian Feickert | 26,029 | 5.23% |
| | Republican | Edward W. Gray | 24,959 | 5.02% |
| Total votes | Total votes | Total votes | 497,580 | 100.0% |
On election night, the results were too close to call.
Robert Carey, a reformist Jersey City judge who lost the Republican nomination for Governor to Morgan F. Larson, quickly alleged that many Hudson County Democrats had voted in the Republican primary for Larson and Stokes as part of a deal with Democratic boss Frank Hague. Carey demanded an investigation by the state Attorney General, which Kean and Frelinghuysen seconded.

#### Results by county

| County | Kean | % | Stokes | % | Frelinghuysen | % | Feickert | % | Gray | % | Total |
| Atlantic | 22,672 | 70% | 5,258 | 16% | 2,600 | 8% | 954 | 3% | 906 | 3% | 32,390 |
| Bergen | 13,107 | 31% | 5,566 | 13% | 17,355 | 41% | 2,560 | 6% | 3,349 | 8% | 41,937 |
| Burlington | 5,125 | 27% | 6,198 | 33% | 5,088 | 27% | 1,568 | 8% | 1,051 | 6% | 19,030 |
| Camden | 27,095 | 52% | 9,416 | 18% | 11,066 | 21% | 2,610 | 5% | 1,873 | 4% | 52,060 |
| Cape May | 4,021 | 55% | 1,678 | 23% | 948 | 13% | 480 | 7% | 237 | 3% | 7,364 |
| Cumberland | 1,468 | 9% | 10,254 | 62% | 3,314 | 20% | 1,063 | 6% | 417 | 3% | 16,516 |
| Essex | 22,274 | 29% | 19,926 | 26% | 26,559 | 34% | 3,272 | 4% | 5,806 | 7% | 77,837 |
| Gloucester | 3,801 | 25% | 3,105 | 20% | 7,495 | 49% | 658 | 4% | 358 | 2% | 15,417 |
| Hudson | 9,049 | 19% | 26,373 | 54% | 9,808 | 20% | 1,415 | 3% | 2,070 | 4% | 48,715 |
| Hunterdon | 707 | 18% | 1,274 | 32% | 1,599 | 40% | 301 | 8% | 107 | 3% | 3,988 |
| Mercer | 1,753 | 8% | 14,966 | 71% | 2,966 | 14% | 911 | 4% | 625 | 3% | 21,221 |
| Middlesex | 5,650 | 27% | 7,448 | 35% | 5,972 | 28% | 1,247 | 6% | 814 | 4% | 21,131 |
| Monmouth | 8,091 | 43% | 4,088 | 22% | 4,547 | 24% | 1,162 | 6% | 881 | 5% | 18,769 |
| Morris | 3,754 | 22% | 5,502 | 33% | 7,591 | 45% | 1,588 | 9% | 1,029 | 6% | 16,847 |
| Ocean | 3,040 | 40% | 1,372 | 18% | 2,116 | 28% | 340 | 5% | 660 | 9% | 7,528 |
| Passaic | 16,267 | 44% | 7,807 | 21% | 9,461 | 26% | 1,234 | 3% | 1,834 | 5% | 36,603 |
| Salem | 1,258 | 25% | 1,896 | 37% | 1,258 | 25% | 585 | 11% | 109 | 2% | 5,106 |
| Somerset | 1,093 | 12% | 1,257 | 13% | 5,764 | 62% | 870 | 9% | 339 | 4% | 9,323 |
| Sussex | 536 | 21% | 747 | 29% | 892 | 34% | 237 | 9% | 184 | 7% | 2,596 |
| Union | 15,409 | 42% | 6,253 | 17% | 9,933 | 27% | 2,614 | 7% | 2,141 | 6% | 36,350 |
| Warren | 859 | 20% | 1,739 | 41% | 1,108 | 26% | 360 | 9% | 169 | 4% | 4,235 |

### Aftermath

The primary left a lasting rift in the state Republican Party. At the party convention weeks later, Stokes denounced "payroll politicians" and unsuccessfully called for a resolution to bar candidates from spending except on specific items, which he claimed would prevent the nomination from being "purchased." Frelinghuysen also demanded an investigation of Carey's charges against Hague, denouncing "those who pretended to be loyal Republicans but who traded with the Democratic bosses."
Frelinghuysen finally endorsed Kean in September, citing his friendship with Herbert Hoover and his support for the "progressive policies" of the Coolidge administration. He ran for Senate again in 1930 but finished a distant third in the primary to Dwight Morrow.

## General election
### Candidates

* Charlotte L. Bohlin (Socialist)
* Edward I. Edwards (Democrat), incumbent Senator
* Hamilton Fish Kean (Republican), banker and member of the Republican National Committee
* Will D. Martin (Prohibition)
* Frank Sanders (Socialist Labor)
* Albert Weisbord (Workers)

### Results

1928 United States Senate election in New Jersey :
| Party | Party | Candidate | Votes | % |
| | Republican | Hamilton Fish Kean | 841,752 | 57.87% |
| | Democratic | Edward I. Edwards (incumbent) | 608,623 | 41.84% |
| | Socialist | Charlotte L. Bohlin | 2,267 | 0.16% |
| | Workers | Albert Weisbrod | 1,333 | 0.09% |
| | Prohibition | Will D. Martin | 372 | 0.03% |
| | Socialist Labor | Frank Sanders | 280 | 0.02% |
| Majority | Majority | Majority | 232,129 | 16.03% |
| Turnout | Turnout | Turnout | 1,454,627 | |
| | Republican gain from Democratic | Republican gain from Democratic | Republican gain from Democratic | Republican gain from Democratic |