Tag: harry truman
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Frank Church and Estes Kefauver: Lone Wolves, Honest Men
Church and Kefauver were both ambitious Senators who led high-profile investigations that caught public attention. They were both Senate outsiders with independent streaks. Were their differences a matter of personality… or the times?
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Estes Kefauver: Not an Organization Man
Kefauver was a principled politician, which cause stumbling blocks for his ambitions. In particular, his refusal to build a political organization made his campaigns harder than they had to be… and may have been hazardous to his health.
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Kefauver and LBJ: Two Paths to Power
Estes Kefauver and Lyndon Johnson had a number of things in common: two liberal-leaning, ambitious Southern Democrats who joined the Senate in the same year. But their approach to politics – and the pursuit of power – couldn’t have been more different.
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The Speech Kefauver Never Gave
Kefauver’s advisors wrote an acceptance speech in case he won the Presidential nomination in ’52. It’s not as pretty as the one Adlai Stevenson gave… but it might have been more effective.
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Electoral College Dropout, Part 2: How to Steal an Election
The forgotten story of how an Alabama attorney and an Oklahoma elected tried to throw the 1960 election to someone who wasn’t a candidate… and how it could happen again.
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Family Feud: Kefauver vs. McKellar
Estes Kefauver made a lot of enemies in the Senate. Perhaps his fiercest foe was the senior Senator from his own state.
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Kefauver and TVA, Part 2: Ike and Dixon-Yates
Estes Kefauver successfully rescued the TVA from Kenneth McKellar’s whims. But could he save it from Ike and the threat of privatization?
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“The Great Land of the Free”: Kefauver and Civil Liberties
Estes Kefauver always took a strong stance on civil rights. Time and again, he stood up for suspected Communists and other unpopular groups. In the era of McCarthyism and the Red Scare, that was a lonely place to be.
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Look For the Union Label: Kefauver and Organized Labor
Estes Kefauver was one of the best friends that organized labor had in the Senate. How did a Southerner from a white-collar background become such a strong ally of unions? Because he was willing to listen.
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Campaign 1956, Part 1: If At First You Don’t Succeed…
Undaunted by his loss in 1952, Kefauver tried for the Presidency a second time. This time, though, he’d have company in the primaries. Adlai Stevenson was taking it to the streets.
