Strom Thurmond won with 66.8% of the vote (644,815 votes), ahead of Melvin Purvis with 31.8% (306,982 votes).
The margin between the first two candidates was 35.0 percentage points (337,833 votes). The party margin (Republican share minus Democratic share) was a Republican lead of 35.0 points.
Compared with the previous comparable race in the same area, the party margin moved 75.7 points toward Republicans. The winning party changed.
965,130 votes were counted in this race, for 3 candidates or options.
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