| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
Brooke: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Peabody: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
|
Elections in Massachusetts |
---|
Massachusetts portal |
The 1966 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held on November 8, 1966. Republican incumbent Leverett Saltonstall retired after serving for 22 years. Republican Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke defeated Democratic former Governor of Massachusetts Endicott Peabody in a landslide.
Brooke was the first African-American U.S. Senator elected after the end of Reconstruction and the first ever popularly elected, as Reconstruction ended before the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. This election marked the first time since Reconstruction in 1874 that an African-American was elected to the United States Senate and Edward Brooke's inauguration was the first time since 1881 that an African-American United States senator held a United States Senate seat.