Sheridan Downey - U.S. Senate

U.S. Senate

In 1938, Downey ran for the U.S. Senate as a supporter of the proposed "Ham and Eggs" government pension program. He defeated incumbent Senator William Gibbs McAdoo, the former son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson, in the Democratic primary by more than 135,000 votes. Despite the strong backing McAdoo received from the White House and a personal campaign appearance by President Franklin Roosevelt to endorse the incumbent, Downey won the primary and went on to victory in November, defeating Republican Philip Bancroft by a 54-46 percent margin. During the 1938 campaign, Downey appeared on the cover of Time.

Though he had been considered a staunch liberal, Downey as a senator became a conservative Democrat who won the support of California's major oil interests. He supported the efforts of oil companies and agribusiness to procure state, rather than federal, control of California's oil resources. He also worked to exempt the California Central Valley from the Reclamation Act of 1902, an action which assisted corporate farms. In the Senate, Downey also introduced a series of pension bills, and in 1941 he was named chairman of a special Senate committee on old-age insurance. He took an early stand supporting a military draft but opposed the Roosevelt administration's plans to requisition industries in time of war. During World War II he called for the creation of a committee to investigate the status of blacks and other minorities in the armed forces and advocated a postwar United Nations, international control of atomic energy, increased veterans' benefits, and federal pay raises. At the end of the war he opposed continuation of the military draft. During his years in the U.S. Senate Downey often represented the interests of California's powerful motion picture industry. His shift from a liberal New Dealer to a conservative Democrat would become officially recognized after the war ended.