James E. Murray

James Edward “Jim”^[1] Murray (May 3, 1876 – March 23, 1961) was a Democrat from Montana who was the state's Class II U.S senator from 1934 until his retirement in 1961. He was elected as a liberal and staunch New Dealer, a stance he maintained throughout his political career.^[2]

Following the death of incumbent senator Thomas Walsh, Montana governor John Erickson resigned and was appointed by his successor as an interim to the seat.^[1] Erickson faced outrage from constituents who suspected cronyism, and Murray was encouraged to run for the seat in the 1934 special election. In an upset, he won the primary in a field of six candidates with a plurality of 25%,^[3] and easily defeated Republican opponent Scott Leavitt in the general election.^[4] Two years later, Murray only barely defeated a primary challenger and proceeded to win re-election for a full Senate term.^[1]

A strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and New Deal programs during the Great Depression, Murray stayed loyal to the president even during the 1937 court packing attempt.^[1] Unlike his Democrat colleague Burton K. Wheeler from the state's Class I seat, he never significantly broke with Roosevelt, though ultimately did vote to recommit the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill for committee.^[5]

Murray voted in 1937 to table two anti-lynching rider amendments along with the majority of his party.^[6][7] In early 1947, he split votes on tabling two motions by Louisiana Democrat John H. Overton,^[8][9] which sought to prevent racist Mississippi demagogue from being kicked out of the Senate after the latter openly threatened blacks in his 1946 re-election campaign. Later in 1957 when the Senate took up the Civil Rights Act that year, Murray joined the majority of his Democrat colleagues (along with the Southern segregationists) in voting for the removal of Title III^[10] as well as instituting a jury trial amendment,^[11] both of which watered down the legislation to being effectively toothless.