by boasting how he countered the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Smith v. Allwright decision, which ruled that racial segregation in state primaries was unconstitutional, by passing a series of laws making the South Carolina Democratic Party a private club which could keep blacks from voting in the state’s primary. During the campaign, Smith presented himself as an aged and tired old man and during at least one debate with Johnston, he spoke for only a few minutes and then played a recording of a speech he had made six years earlier. Johnston would go on to win the primary with over 55 percent of the vote, thus achieving the majority needed to avoid a run-off, and Smith would only receive just over 35 percent of the vote. After hearing word of his defeat on his 2,500-acre farm near Lynchburg, Smith stood up in frustration and said "Well, I guess I better go out and look at the pigs." On November 17, 1944, a month and a half before the end of his term, Smith died at Tanglewood Plantation in the same bed in which he was born. He is buried at St. Luke's Cemetery near Wisacky in Lee County. See also List of United States Congress members who died in office (1900–49) References David Robertson (1994). Sly and Able: A Political Biography of James A. Byrnes, New York: W.W. Norton. . pp. 150, 190–96, 269–98, 328, 337, 342, 495–496, 533. External links 1864 births 1944 deaths People from Lee County, South Carolina University of South Carolina alumni Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Wofford College alumni Democratic Party United States senators from South Carolina Neo-Confederates History of racism in South Carolina Old Right (United States) People born in the Confederate States