Lincoln was the Republican Party nominee for U.S. Senate in 1858, challenging Douglas, the incumbent. In the summer and fall of 1858, Lincoln crisscrossed Illinois delivering speeches and campaigning on behalf of Republican candidates for the Illinois General Assembly. At this time the Illinois General Assembly elected the state’s representatives in the U.S. Senate, thus the outcome of races for the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate were of importance to Lincoln’s campaign. Lincoln and Douglas both focused their campaign efforts on the former Whig Party stronghold of central Illinois, where the state legislative races were the closest. Republicans were eager to garner support in central and southern Illinois, but the vast majority of the counties south of Sangamon, including Fayette, home to Vandalia, were solidly Democratic. Douglas used the area’s hostility toward abolitionism to his benefit in his speeches, particularly during the Lincoln-Douglas Debates. As the pair traveled through central and southern Illinois, Douglas accused Lincoln of supporting a doctrine of racial equality. He continued by asserting the superiority of the white race and the dominance of white men’s rights above all else. Democratic newspapers echoed Douglas’s sentiments.

Douglas's tactics had the desired effect in Fayette County: Fayette County voters gave James C. Robinson, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in their congressional district, 58.2 percent of the vote in his successful bid to win election to Congress, and sent Democrats Stephen Hardin and Mortimer O'Kean to Illinois House and Illinois Senate, respectively. Hardin and O'Kean both voted for Douglas in the election for U.S. senator, allowing him to defeat Lincoln, but Lincoln, in defeat, was catapulted to national prominence. 1858 Federal Election; Lincoln-Douglas Debates.