Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse: The tale of Landslide Lyndon

  There are a good many stories about elections of the 1940s and 50s where votes were bought and elections stolen. The most brazen theft of an election occurred in the 1948 race for the U.S. Senate in Texas. The race was between Coke Stevenson and Lyndon B. Johnson. It can also be classified as one of the most relevant robberies in American history because if Johnson had lost as he was supposed to, it would have dramatically impacted U.S. history.

  Coke Stevenson was a Texas icon. He was the epitome of a Texas gentleman and he was revered. He was Texas’ Horatio Alger and Davy Crockett combined. He raised himself from age 12, built a ranching empire, was Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, and a very popular Governor of Texas. Stevenson was above reproach. He would not lie, steal or cheat, and Texans knew that about old Coke.