Governor's Race Scrapbook

During the 1946 Texas Gubernatorial election, the Democratic Party was sharply divided between moderate and more liberal factions. Governor Coke R. Stevenson (1888-1975) postponed announcing his decision not to run for another term in an effort to discourage other contenders and to help the more moderate candidate Beauford H. Jester (1893-1949) defeat his opponent Homer Price Rainey (1896-1985) in the democratic primary runoff election. After winning the democratic primary, Jester defeated Republican nominee Eugene Nolte, Jr. (b. 1903) in the general election, becoming the 36th Governor of Texas.

From the guide to the Governor's Race Scrapbook, 1945-1946, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)