It had become evident by the action of the 65th Congress that something more efficacious than public opinion or pressure from high sources was required to secure the needed two votes in the Senate. The official board of the National Suffrage Association, therefore, for the first time in its history decided to enter the political campaigns. Those of New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware were selected in the hope of defeating the Senatorial candidates for re-election who had opposed the amendment and electing those who would support it. It was necessary to use influence against Republican candidates in three States and a Democratic candidate in Delaware. Two of these efforts were successful and a Republican, J. Heisler Ball, defeated the Democratic Senator Saulsbury of Delaware, and a Democrat, David I. Walsh, defeated the Republican Senator Weeks of Massachusetts. Both of the new members voted for the amendment in the 66th Congress.
The election returns on November 6 indicated that the necessary two-thirds majority in the 66th Congress had been secured. This belief was shared by prominent Democrats, who from that time spared no effort to make unfriendly Democratic Senators realize the folly of their position in leaving the victory for the Republican Congress which had been elected. At this election the voters of Michigan, South Dakota and Oklahoma by large majorities fully enfranchised their women, adding six Senators and twenty-four Representatives to the number partly elected by the votes of women. Texas this year had given women a vote at Primary elections, almost equal to the complete suffrage. Resolutions were passed by twenty-five State Legislatures in January and early February, 1919, calling upon the Senate to submit the Federal Amendment. William P. Pollock of South Carolina, who had been elected to succeed Senator Benet, was not only in favor of it but was working to secure the one vote among the southern Senators which, added to his own, would complete the two-thirds. A conference of friendly Democratic Senators on February 2 decided that a vote must be taken the following week if this party was to have the credit. The next day the Senate Woman Suffrage Committee met and unanimously voted to bring up the amendment on February 10. The reasons for the decision were, first, that there was a chance to win and nothing to be lost by recording the friends and enemies; second, that one man had been gained since the last vote and there was a possibility that another could be won. President Wilson cabled from Paris urging doubtful Senators to vote in favor. William Jennings Bryan came to Washington to intercede for it.
On petition of twenty-two Democratic Senators, a party caucus on suffrage was held on February 5, but the enemies died hard. They immediately made a motion to adjourn but the suffragists without proxies defeated the "antis," who voted proxies, by 22 to 16. On a resolution that the Democratic Senators support the Federal Suffrage Amendment, twenty-two voted in the affirmative but when ten had voted in the negative those ten were allowed by Senator Thomas S. Martin (Va.), Democratic floor leader, to withdraw their votes in order that he might declare that, as the vote stood 22 to 0, a quorum had not voted!
After the close of the morning business on Feb. 10, 1919, Chairman Jones moved to take up the amendment. An extremely strong speech in its favor was made by Senator Pollock. The only other speeches were by Senator Frelinghuysen on points of naturalization and by Edward J. Gay, the new Senator from Louisiana, in opposition. The vote taken early in the afternoon showed 55 in favor and 29 opposed. As on October 1, all the members who were not present to vote were accounted for by pairs, so that it stood practically 63 to 33. In other words the amendment was lost in the 65th Congress by only one vote and the individual responsibility for the defeat lay at the door of every Senator who voted against it.
From the States west of the Mississippi River only three Senators voted "no"—Borah of Idaho, Reed of Missouri and Hitchcock of Nebraska.
Only three States—Alabama, Delaware and Georgia—cast all their votes in both Senate and House against the amendment.
Twenty States cast all their votes in Senate and House in favor—Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. In all of these women already had full or partial suffrage.
On February 17 Senator Wesley L. Jones of Washington re-introduced the amendment in its old form, stating that he expected no action during the present Congress. On the following day Senator Gay introduced an amendment in which the right of enforcement was given to the various States and Congress was excluded. On the 20th Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee introduced one requiring personal naturalization of alien women. Senator Gay agreed to support an amendment introduced February 28 by Chairman Jones, giving the States the right to enforce the amendment, but, in case of their failure to do so, permitting Congress to enact appropriate legislation. Just before the close of the session on March 3, a southern Democrat, in response to a cablegram from President Wilson, consented to give the measure the lacking vote if it could be brought up again but this the Republicans declined to permit.
During this winter of 1919 the National American Association continued the work of obtaining from the Legislatures Presidential suffrage for women and to the list were added Maine, Vermont, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and Tennessee, fourteen altogether. By May 1, adding the States with this Presidential suffrage to the fifteen where women had the complete franchise, it was estimated that about 15,500,000 would be able to "vote for the President" in the general election of 1920. They could vote for 306 of the 531 members of the Electoral College, 40 more than half. About half of the above number would exercise the full suffrage. Thirty-four Senators and 130 Representatives were now elected partly by women, including those from Arkansas and Texas.