HARDING WINS FIRST TEST IN NEW MEXICO'S SENATE RACE
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 21, 1921, Carter Field writes that Senator H.O. Bursum* (R-New Mexico) "has rolled up a majority over his Democratic opponent of...7000" making it "the largest majority ever given by (New Mexico) except in the Harding landslide last year."
Note: The election was held on September 20, 1921.
This was the President's first test at the hands of voters of New Mexico and one, according to Field, he "has come through victorious."
Senator Bursum had been appointed to replace Albert B. Fall when the latter resigned his senate seat to take his place in the Harding cabinet.
Carter Field describes the result of this Republican victory as "the biggest jolt the Democratic National Committee has gotten since the Harding landslide."
The President sent a message to the victorious senator which included these words...
"Congratulations on the splendid indorsement** New Mexico has given you."
*Holm Olaf Bursum (1867-1953) was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa & settled in the New Mexico Territory. HOB took an active role in attaining statehood for NM & was defeated in his re-election bid for US Senate in 1924.
**According to www.writingexplained.org/, indorsement is only used in financial contexts, & then only rarely. For any public show of support, endorsement is the only spelling. The quote is exactly how it appears in the New York Tribune.
SOURCE
"Harding Wins First Test in New Mexico," by Carter Field, The New York Tribune, September 22, 1921, www.chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/
