--- description: Seeking his seventh Senate term, Old Frontiersman Carl Hayden, 85, lay ill with a virus infection in Bethesda Naval Hospital. Back home, followers of Republican Evan Mecham, a Phoenix auto dealer,... title: The Senate: Arizona: Message Received image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # The Senate: Arizona: Message Received by [TIME](/author/time/) Nov 16, 1962 5:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Nov 16, 1962 5:00 AM CUT Seeking his seventh Senate term, Old Frontiersman Carl Hayden, 85, lay ill with a virus infection in Bethesda Naval Hospital. Back home, followers of Republican Evan Mecham, a Phoenix auto dealer, spread rumors that Hayden had suffered a stroke, that he was dying after a heart attack, that doctors at the hospital had been warned under threat of court-martial not to release news of his death until after Election Day. To convince voters that he was still alive and kicking, Hayden called a press conference—only his fourth in 50 years of public life—three days before election. Arizona got the message —and Hayden, without campaigning at all, solidly beat Mecham. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6625558/the-senate-arizona-message-received/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6625558/the-senate-arizona-message-received/"},"headline":"The Senate: Arizona: Message Received","datePublished":"1962-11-16T05:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-26T07:36:25.472Z","description":"Seeking his seventh Senate term, Old Frontiersman Carl Hayden, 85, lay ill with a virus infection in Bethesda Naval Hospital. Back home, followers of Republican Evan Mecham, a Phoenix auto dealer,...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6625558/the-senate-arizona-message-received/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6625558/the-senate-arizona-message-received/","name":"The Senate: Arizona: Message Received"}}]}] ```