John E. Miles of New Mexico By Ray Hill For 60 years, John E. Miles was a fixture of New Mexico’s political scene.  Miles held numerous elected and appointed positions throughout his life and lived long enough to become a senior statesman of New Mexico’s Democratic...

K.D. McKellar Goes To Congress, II   By Ray Hill The campaigns of Kenneth D. McKellar and his chief opponent for the Democratic nomination in the 1911 special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of George Washington Gordon had heated up.  McKellar...

K.D. McKellar Goes To Congress, I By Ray Hill Tennessee has been fortunate to have sent some to Congress who have wielded real influence in the Nation’s Capitol.  Tennessee has also had a few men who served for decades in Washington, D.C.  Carroll Reece and Jimmy...

The Fight for Majority Leader, 1937 By Ray Hill Sometime during the night of July 14, 1937, the heart of Joseph T. Robinson stopped beating.  Arkansas had honored Joe Robinson with every distinction she could bestow upon a single individual, electing him to Congress,...

The Friend of the Workers: Olin D. Johnston of South Carolina By Ray Hill Olin DeWitt Talmadge Johnston was a fixture in the politics of his native South Carolina for decades.  Twice elected governor and elected to the United States Senate in 1944 where he remained...

The Poet in Congress: John S. McGroarty of California By Ray Hill “One of the countless drawbacks of being in Congress is that I am compelled to receive impertinent letters from a jackass like you in which you say I promised to have the Sierra Madre mountains...

The Tragedy of William Knowland By Ray Hill William Fife Knowland seemingly had everything; born into a wealthy and powerful family, he eventually found himself in the United States Senate representing California.  Rising to become the Majority Leader of the U.S....

Frederick Gillet & the Fight for Speaker By Ray Hill   The mutiny earlier this year inside the GOP caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives is not new, although it hasn’t happened in a long while. In fact, the last time it did occur was one hundred years...

Oklahoma’s Crazy Congressman: Manuel Herrick By Ray Hill If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone suggest a member of Congress was crazy, Elon Musk would be a pauper by comparison. Yet in the case of Manuel Herrick of Oklahoma, it was not simply the opinion...

E. W. Marland of Oklahoma By Ray Hill The life story of Ernest Whitworth Marland is a tale of the rise and fall of an American businessman and politician like a Hollywood movie. It is the story of rising to amazing heights and falling just as far. Marland made an...