John F. Kennedy, 35, elected to U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, defeating Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. 70 years ago #OnThisDay #OTD (Nov 4 1952)


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(Tuesday, November 4, 1952; during the 1952 United States Senate election in Massachusetts) — U.S. Representative John F. Kennedy, a 35-year-old Democrat, defeated Republican incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., today in the U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts by a margin of 51.3 to 48.3 percent.


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The election marked the end of the Lodge family dynasty and the beginning of the Kennedy family dynasty.

Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. and his grandfather Henry Cabot Lodge had held one of Massachusetts’s two Senate seats for 43 of the previous 60 years. Kennedy and his younger brother Ted Kennedy would hold this Senate seat for 55 of the next 57 years.


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On the weekend before the election, GOP presidential nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower visited Boston and energetically campaigned for Lodge, but it was not enough.


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Although Eisenhower carried Massachusetts by over 200,000 votes, Kennedy narrowly upset Lodge, winning by 70,000 votes and three percentage points.