The Pittsburgh Press (September 6, 1944)
Senator McCarran wins in close race
Reno, Nevada (UP) –
U.S. Senator Patrick A. “Pat” McCarran today won the Democratic senatorial nomination for the third time as unofficial returns from yesterday’s primary elections in Nevada gave him an increasing lead over Lieutenant Governor Vail Pittman, Ely publisher and brother of the late Senator Key Pittman.
With only 34 scattered precincts to be reported, unofficial tabulations gave Mr. McCarran a majority of nearly 1,000 votes over Mr. Pittman and observers said he had won the nomination regardless of how the vote went in those sections still to be reported.
Returns from 249 of the state’s 283 precincts gave McCarran 10,441 votes, compared to 9,588 for Pittman.
Mr. Pittman made a campaign issue of Senator McCarran’s pre-Pearl Harbor isolationism, classing him with Senators D. Worth Clark (defeated in Idaho), Bennett Champ Clark (who went down in Missouri), Cotton Ed Smith (who lost in South Carolina) and Gerald P. Nye (who barely won renomination in North Dakota).
Mr. McCarran apparently will oppose George Malone, former state engineer, in the general election in November. Incomplete returns showed that Mr. Malone apparently had won the GOP nomination over Reno divorcee lawyer Kendrick A. Johnson and youthful State Senator Kenneth F. Johnson.