For Lack of 1500 Votes

Well, I suppose that depends on how he managed to win; it's not exactly a secret that Johnson's defeat was due to voter fraud (nor that it played a role in his victory in 1948). So, does Johnson manage to cut a deal with the established interests to with the Democratic Party to shift the balance of fraud in his favor? If so, who he makes a deal with and what kind of deal it will make a pretty big difference in how things turn out.
 
How about a '48-style deal, where his subordinates do the dirty work, i.e. plausible deniability.
I'm sure that kind of thing was fairly standard for all election fraud at the time; the first rule of dirty politics has always been to make sure your ... assets are covered.

So, I suppose the real question is which of the big movers in 1941 who backed O'Daniel (or at least didn't back Johnson) could be convinced to back Johnson instead, and what winning that support would have cost him in the way of considerations and concessions. That could range from the relatively inconsequential from an A-H points of view (giving some well-connected nephews sinecures) to pretty major (Johnson reversing his positions on key policies).
 
Perhaps something minor, like concessions to George Parr as per OTL in '48. What effect would a '41 win have on LBJ's career? He'd still become POTUS though.
 
W. Lee 'Pappy' O'Daniel did to Johnson in '41 what LBJ would do to Coke Stevenson in '48.

He waited until he knew how many votes were needed to put him over the top, and then went to the county bosses he was allied to. In '41 O'Daniel had guys in the east of the state who 'found' the votes he needed. In '48 LBJ had county organisations along the border with Mexico (the Rio Grande valley) who delivered his winning margin.

LBJ later said that he lost the first race because he allowed his vote totals from his friendly counties released too early, allowing O'Daniels machine to do their business.

To change this result I think the only POD needed is for LBJ to decide he must be as ruthless as he would later be IOTL.

Johnson going to the senate before America is even in WWII is a fascinating what if. I started a TL where LBJ is elected at another special election straight after the ascent of Truman to the White House, and I had the very junior senator decide to use his talents to successfuly thwart the Taft/Hartley labor act, aka the greatest anti-New Deal reform passed by the Republicans before the age of Reagan. That's how significant I think an earlier Senator LBJ could be.
 
His later career wouldn't be affected, would it? Still VP then POTUS.

Considering he never wanted to be Veep, at least not by the time he'd reached his fifties, yet had no choice but to play second banana to JFK...

I think this might be enough for LBJ to push himself onto the presidential ticket earlier. Much earlier.

Nineteen forty-four through to nineteen fifty-two saw three open VP nominations, and one open presidential nomination for the Democratic Party.

(Toryanna68, you're not yet familiar with the butterfly effect?)
 
I am, but he'd be number two to a highly overrated electoral loser. No way he could beat Ike in '52, no one could. The steel ceiling against Southerners was still in effect.
 
I am, but he'd be number two to a highly overrated electoral loser. No way he could beat Ike in '52, no one could. The steel ceiling against Southerners was still in effect.

LBJ's ambition was a little engine that knew no rest. Anyway, a Vice President Johnson elected to that office in 1948 wouldn't face the same problems Georgian Senator Russell did when he sought the nomination in 1952, or indeed Senator Johnson did when he tried in both 1956 and 1960...
 
So say he becomes Truman's veep, Truman abdicates in '52 as per OTL, and LBJ loses to Ike. Then he's out of the Senate, a former VP who's political career is stalled and possibly finished.
 
So say he becomes Truman's veep, Truman abdicates in '52 as per OTL, and LBJ loses to Ike. Then he's out of the Senate, a former VP who's political career is stalled and possibly finished.

That's certainly one possibility. But it was an era when ambitious men were sure they could have multiple tilts at the presidency--Dewey and Stevenson. Hell, Nixon quietly sought his party's nomination in 1964, when LBJ was possibly more favoured than Ike had been twelve years earlier.

But I don't like making predictions RE what would have happened years after a particular POD (hence I chose 1945 for my go at an LBJ scenario, not the election of 1941). After all, a Democrat has a fighting chance in 1952 against Robert Taft.
 
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