For to many of O’Daniel’s faithful, the strongest reason for not electing him to the Senate was their love for him. They didn’t want him to leave them, to go to faraway Washington; they couldn’t bear to lose him. The argument was working. Recalls one Johnson campaign worker: “I said, ‘O’Daniel’s made us a good Governor—let’s keep him there.’ I said, ‘Don’t send Pappy way up there to Washington with all those professional politicians.’ And that argument really touched. They loved Pappy. They didn’t want him to go away.”
