page_title: 1957 United States Senate elections
section_title: Wisconsin
hierarchical_section_title: 1957 United States Senate elections / Wisconsin
caption_attribution_description: English: United States Senator William Proxmire (D–WI)
context_page_description: Democrat William Proxmire won a special election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. Also, Price Daniel left the Senate to become governor of Texas, and Democrat Ralph Yarborough won a special election for that Senate seat. The Democrats thus made a net gain of one seat. However, Congress was out of session at the time of the Democratic gain in Wisconsin, and the Republicans gained a Democratic-held seat only weeks after the next session started, when Republican John D. Hoblitzell Jr. was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Senator Matthew M. Neely.
context_section_description: Two-term Republican Joseph McCarthy died May 2, 1957. In the summer of 1957, a special election was held to fill McCarthy's seat. In the primaries, voters in both parties turned away from McCarthy's legacy. The Republican primary was won by Walter J. Kohler Jr., who called for a clean break from McCarthy's approach; he defeated former Congressman Glenn Robert Davis, who charged that Eisenhower was soft on Communism. The Democratic candidate, William Proxmire, called the late McCarthy "a disgrace to Wisconsin, to the Senate, and to America". On August 27, Proxmire won the election, serving in the seat for 32 years.
  Proxmire would be re-elected five more times, serving until his retirement in 1989.
caption: Senator William Proxmire
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