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"Lincoln lost one election. And in fact, he won the popular vote in that election, but the state legislature chose Douglas."

Could you please explain how Lincoln "won the popular vote" for the Senate a full 56 years before the first time the people ever voted in a U.S. Senate election?

Before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, Senators were elected by the state legislatures. The Lincoln-Douglas debates and their "Senate race" were merely part of the Illinois state legislative elections of 1858, since the Republican candidates would vote for Lincoln if elected to the Legislature while the Democrat candidates would vote for Douglas. The people of Illinois elected Democrat majorities to both houses of the Illinois Legislature, and the Legislature elected Douglas to the U.S. Senate.

Could you please explain how Lincoln "won the popular vote" for the Senate a full 56 years before the first time the people ever voted in a U.S. Senate election?

In Illinois, and perhaps in other states, there was a non-binding popular vote. Lincoln received nearly 4,100 more votes than Douglas in 1858. But in the binding legislature vote, he lost 46-54.

>> Could you please explain how Lincoln "won the popular vote" for the Senate a full 56 years before the first time the people ever voted in a U.S. Senate election?
Before the 17th Amendment was ratified in 1913, Senators were elected by the state legislatures. <<

Lincoln won in a statewide referendum vote, I believe it was pretty narrow though, like Lincoln-52%, Douglas-48%. The state legislature was controlled by RATs and disregarded that, and gave it to Douglas by a margin of around 60-40.

That's why Lincoln was running around the state doing debates and taking it to "the people", he figured he could get them to pressure their local leaders to do the "right thing" and crossover for Lincoln if they had a Democrat representing a heavily anti-slavery district.

Incidnetially, the 1858 election is yet another example that state legislatures are full of corrupt hacks in rigged districts and they do NOT represent "local" interests. If the 17th amendment was repealed, Alabama, which is heavily conservative, would now send two liberal RATS to the U.S. Senate because the legislature is drawn to have a RAT majority thanks to a few yellow-dog conservative areas selecting "conservative" RAT officials, which in turn vote put the liberal RAT plurality into statewide control.