that he was a Southerner. Later, Hruska famously told reporters: The remark was criticized by many as being anti-semitic, which further damaged Carswell's cause. Despite the testimony given about his civil rights record, on February 16, 1970, the Judiciary Committee voted 13–4 to forward the nomination to the full Senate with a favorable recommendation. After opponents of Carswell failed, by a 44–52 vote, to return the nomination to the Judiciary committee for further review on April 6, the Senate rejected Carswell's nomination on April 8, 1970, by a 45–51 vote, with 13 Republicans joining 38 Democrats in voting "no". Not since Grover Cleveland, in 1893–94, had the Senate rejected two of the president's Supreme Court nominees. President Nixon accused Democrats of having an anti-Southern bias as a result saying, "... the real reason for their rejection was their legal philosophy, a philosophy that I share, of strict construction of the Constitution, and also the accident of their birth, the fact that they were born in the South ... I understand the bitter feelings of millions of Americans who live in the South about the act of regional discrimination that took place in the Senate yesterday." Later that April, the president nominated Harry Blackmun to fill the Fortas vacancy. He was later confirmed in a 94–0 vote on May 12. U.S. Senate campaign On April 20, 1970, Carswell resigned from his judicial position to run for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Florida. His opponent was U.S. Representative William C. Cramer of St. Petersburg. Expecting to benefit politically in Florida from the rejection of Judge Carswell to the Supreme Court, aides of either Governor Claude R. Kirk, Jr., or U.S. Senator Edward Gurney of Winter Park urged Carswell to resign from the bench to run for the Senate seat being vacated by the long-term Democrat Spessard Holland. Cramer claimed that Gurney had in a 1968 "gentlemen's agreement" agreed to support him for the seat. Gurney declined to discuss the "gentlemen's agreement" with Cramer but said that he and Cramer, who had been House colleagues, had "totally different opinions on this. That is ancient history, and I see no point in reviving things. … If I told my complete version of the matter, Cramer would not believe me, and I don't want Bill angry at me." Gurney claimed that he was unaware that Cramer had considered running for the Senate