Senate Election and Service
In 1924, Steck won the Democratic nomination to run against incumbent Senator Smith W. Brookhart, who had been elected just two years earlier in a special election. Brookhart had run as a Republican and won the Republican nomination, but angered many within his party by crusading against business interests, demanding the withdrawal of Charles Dawes, President Coolidge's running mate, and by endorsing Progressive Party presidential candidate Robert M. LaFollette. By the middle of October 1924, the editorial pages of all but one of the state's major Republican daily newspapers had encouraged Republicans to vote for Steck over Brookhart. The day after the election, newspapers reported that Steck had won. However, two days after the election, late returns from rural districts appeared to give Brookhart a tiny lead. Because Steck appeared to have lost the race for by a small margin, with Brookhart getting 447,594 votes to Steck's 446,840, Brookhart initially retained his seat, and was sworn in on March 4, 1925.
Steck, however, had filed an election challenge with the Senate Committee on Elections and Privileges. His challenge succeeded on April 12, 1926 when the Senate voted by a margin of 45 to 41 to declare Steck the victor. Steck then took over the seat and served out the remainder of the term, while Brookhart immediately filed as a candidate for Iowa's other Senate seat, which he captured later that year. On other occasions the Senate has settled election disputes before a Senator took office, but this is the only time the results were overturned after the Senator was seated.
When he took office in 1926, Steck became Iowa's first Democratic Senator since George W. Jones left office in 1859.
Steck maintained a low profile in the Senate. In the 71st Congress (from March 1929 to March 1931), he spoke on the Senate floor only four times.
Steck voted against the Republican-supported Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, foreseeing that it would trigger retaliatory tariffs, and fearful of the effects of those tariffs on international markets for Iowa's farm products. However, as a Democratic Senator from a state that consistently voted for Republicans, Steck's could not afford to follow a strict party line. Time reported that he "votes more like a regular Republican than any other member of his party." Steck's successful election challenge also left Brookhart seeking revenge, even after Brookhart was elected again to the Senate. In 1930, Time also reported that Brookhart "vowed that Senator Steck will not return to the Capitol if he (Brookhart) 'has to turn Iowa upside down.'" Steck ran for re-election that year, but was not favored to retain his seat.
In 1930, Steck was renominated, but lost to Republican U.S. Representative L. J. Dickinson of Algona, Iowa.
Read more about this topic: Daniel F. Steck
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