By Ray Hill There were those who believed Howard Baker’s election to the United States Senate was an aberration; some believed Tennessee would return to its Democratic roots in the next election cycle. Yet Richard Nixon carried the Volunteer State in the 1968 presidential election. The Democratic nominee, Hubert Humphrey, had run a poor third […]
By Ray Hill Although Howard Baker had not been selected as Richard Nixon’s running mate in 1968, his political star continued to rise. Even as Howard Baker’s political fortunes rose, 1969 was a difficult year for the Baker family. Everett McKinley Dirksen was the last of his kind. A golden throated orator of a time […]
By Ray Hill Howard Baker had accomplished what most observers had believed to be the impossible by defeating Governor Frank Clement for the United States Senate in the November election in 1966. Baker became the first Republican ever to be popularly elected to the U. S. Senate since Tennesseans began electing senators in 1916. It […]
By Ray Hill In the fall of 1966, Republican Howard Baker kicked off his general election campaign for the United States Senate. He faced Democrat Governor Frank Clement in November, one of the most popular and experienced campaigners in Tennessee for the last decade. Since 1953, Frank Clement had served as Tennessee’s governor for all […]
By Ray Hill After having lost a close race for the United States Senate in 1964, Howard H. Baker, Jr. resolved to run again in 1966. Senator Ross Bass would have to defend his seat after only two years, as he was completing the term of the late Estes Kefauver. The winner of the 1966 […]
By Ray Hill During the last decade, Tennessee has become more solidly Republican with the GOP occupying the governorship, both seats in the United States Senate, seven out of nine Congressional seats and a majority in the General Assembly. Not so long ago, Tennessee was a reliably Democratic state. The father of Tennessee’s modern Republican […]
By Ray Hill Tennessee’s senior United States senator, Kenneth D. McKellar, had finally abandoned his opposition to the construction of the Douglas Dam. For those who thought it signified some kind of surrender in his battle of wills with Tennessee Valley Authority Director David E. Lilienthal, they were very much mistaken. Kenneth Douglas McKellar was […]
By Ray Hill Senator Kenneth D. McKellar’s reputation has suffered through the years largely due to his feud with David E. Lilienthal. Lilienthal was one of the original Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. Like all of Kenneth McKellar’s feuds, it was a no holds barred affair and his hatred of Lilienthal became something of […]
By Ray Hill “A college boy cannot successfully go through life by graduating in football, baseball or highballs, for the responsibilities of life are not ball-bearing.” – William H. Murray William H. Murray is almost invariably described as Oklahoma’s most colorful political figure. Considering he went out of office in 1935, that is saying something. […]
By Ray Hill Congressman Albert Gore, forty-four years old in 1952, was poised to challenge Tennessee’s most formidable vote getter, Senator Kenneth D. McKellar, in the Democratic primary. McKellar, eighty-three years old and ailing, remained an imposing candidate despite his infirmities. The longest serving senator in Tennessee’s history, McKellar was well liked by his people […]
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