Republican Governor Leverett Saltonstall was elected to finish the term of Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., who had resigned from the Senate to serve in World War II.

Primary elections were held on July 10; Saltonstall was unopposed for the Republican nomination, while John H. Corcoran won a highly competitive race for the Democratic nomination, in which all four candidates came from Boston or Cambridge.

Incumbent Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. resigned from the Senate on February 3, 1944, to return to active duty in the U.S. Army during World War II.

[1] Instead, on February 8, Saltonstall appointed Sinclair Weeks, whom Lodge had narrowly defeated at the party convention in 1936.

Though he was entitled to be seated immediately upon the certification of the election, Saltonstall did not take office until January 4, 1945, when his term as Governor ended.