Blakley:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Wright:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80% Wilson:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90% Maverick:      20–30%      30–40% Gonzalez:      20–30%      30–40%      40–50%      50–60%      80–90%      >90% William A. Blakley Democratic John Tower Republican The 1961 United States Senate special election in Texas was held on May 27, 1961.

Tower was also the first Republican to be popularly elected to the Senate in any former Confederate state.

Because Texas had been a Solid South state, the loss of Johnson's Senate seat would be seen as a stinging defeat for the Kennedy administration and the Democratic Party, given that the Civil Rights Movement was getting off the ground and the increasing sympathy for it amongst increasingly influential liberal Democrats.

One of the Democrats who were defeated in the first round was congressman Jim Wright, who went on to briefly serve as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives in the late 1980s.

At the time, the filing fee for ballot access was only $50 ($528 in 2024 when adjusted for inflation).