In 1926, Gifford Pinchot (then Governor of Pennsylvania) and William Scott Vare (U.S. Representative and boss of the powerful Philadelphia political machine) both challenged incumbent United States Senator George W. Pepper in the Republican primary.

After a year-long review of the contested election, the Senate voted 58–22 not to seat Vare on the grounds that he had fraudulently and extravagantly financed his campaign against Pepper.

[5] To avenge his defeat in 1926, Vare and Philadelphia leaders were able to recruit Francis Shunk Brown, the former state Attorney General, to run in the primary against Pinchot.

[8] Republican National Committeeman W. W. Atterbury, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a Brown supporter, unsuccessfully worked to have Representative Phillips withdraw in an effort to unify the anti-prohibition campaign behind a single candidate.

Joseph D. Herben, who filed a last-minute campaign to run on a "Negro ticket,"[6] was invited by the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters to an open discussion of Republican issues.