By Ray Hill Brazilla Carroll Reece had served for ten years in the U. S. House of Representatives before being upset in the 1930 general election by Oscar Byrd Lovette of Greeneville, Tennessee. Reece never stopped campaigning to return for Congress and he and O. B. Lovette fought two bitter contests in the 1932 election. […]
By Ray Hill Carroll Reece had first been elected to Congress from Tennessee’s First District in 1920 when he defeated Congressman Sam R. Sells inside the Republican primary. Sells had served for a decade before losing to Reece, who had been recognized for his bravery and heroism in the First World War. Reece had also […]
By Ray Hill Outside of Arizona, few people remember Ernest McFarland save for the man Barry Goldwater beat to get to the United States Senate. Yet Ernest McFarland was much more than a rudimentary politician. McFarland rose from county judge to United States senator, governor, and Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court. While in […]
By Ray Hill Milton Ruben Young is a name very few of my readers are likely familiar with and he was an improbable member of the United States Senate. Even in his native state of North Dakota, Young is something of vague figure despite almost thirty-six years of service in the Senate. Indeed, Milton Young […]
By Ray Hill Very few people remember Samuel Davis McReynolds, who was a long-time Congressman representing Tennessee’s Third District, which includes Chattanooga; yet during his time, he was a highly influential member of the House of Representatives. Quite likely, McReynolds’ career has been eclipsed by that of his successor, Estes Kefauver. McReynolds was born […]
By Ray Hill Carroll Reece had spent a decade in Congress serving Tennessee’s First Congressional District when he had been upset by Oscar Byrd Lovette, the former district attorney general from Greene County in the 1930 general election. Reece had faced a tough primary challenge that year from attorney Sam W. Price, yet it seemed […]
By Ray Hill Brazilla Carroll Reece had served Tennessee’s First Congressional District in Congress for ten years before losing the 1930 general election to Independent candidate Oscar Byrd Lovette. It was the first time in 52 years any candidate aside from a Republican had won a seat in Congress from the First Congressional District. Carroll […]
By Ray Hill Carroll Reece, congressman from Tennessee’s First Congressional District, had served for a decade. Yet, in the 1930 general election, Reece found himself surprisingly hard pressed by the challenge of Oscar Byrd Lovette, the former District Attorney for four Tennessee counties that surround Lovette’s home of Greene County. Tennessee’s First Congressional District was […]
Remembering Senator Bill Brock By Ray Hill Bill Brock died March 25, 2021 of pneumonia while in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Brock was one of the founders of Tennessee’s modern Republican Party and he had a great deal to do with turning the Volunteer State into a genuine two-party state. Brock was the grandson and namesake […]
By Ray Hill By 1930, Carroll Reece, congressman from Tennessee’s First Congressional District, had served for a decade in the House of Representatives. Reece had defeated an incumbent who had also served for ten years in Congress to win the Republican nomination in 1920 as a thirty-one-year-old veteran of the First World War. Reece had […]