Ralph Yarborough

Ralph Webster Yarborough (June 8, 1903 – January 27, 1996) was a Texas politician who served in the United States Senate (1957-1971) and was a leader of the progressive or liberal wing of the Democratic Party in Texas in his many races for statewide office. As a U.S. Senator, he was a staunch supporter and author of "Great Society" legislation that encompassed Medicare and Medicaid, the War on Poverty, federal support for higher education and veterans. He co-wrote the Endangered Species Act and was the only southern senator to vote for all civil rights bills from 1957 to 1970 (including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act). Yarborough was known as "Smilin' Ralph" Yarborough and used the slogan "Let's put the jam on the lower shelf so the little people can reach it" in his campaigns.

Political life

Historically, Texas has been a one party state of the Democratic Party. Democrats would win every statewide office, a majority of the congressional delegation, and large majorities in the state legislature. Thus, general elections were formalities, and the real battles took place in the Democratic party primaries. The Democratic primaries would be heated battles between the conservative wing (pre-presidency Lyndon Baines Johnson, Governor Allan Shivers, John Connally), and the liberal wing (with which Yarborough identified) that identified more with the national party.

Related Topics:
Democratic Party - Lyndon Baines Johnson - Allan Shivers - John Connally

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Ralph Yarborough was urged to run again for state attorney general in 1952, and he planned to do so until he received a personal affront by Governor Allan Shivers who told him not to run. Out of spite, Ralph Yarborough then ran in the primaries for governor in 1952 and 1954 against the conservative Shivers, drawing support from labor unions and liberals. Yarborough denounced the corrupt "Shivercrats" for veterans' fraud in the General Land Office and for endorsing the Republican Eisenhower/Nixon ticket for President instead of Democrat Adlai Stevenson in 1952. Shivers portrayed Yarborough as an integrationist supported by communist labor unions. The 1954 election was particularly nasty in its race-baiting by Shivers as it was the year that Brown v. Board of Education was decided, and Shivers made the most of the court decision in order to play on voters' racism. In one particularly odious episode, a black man was hired to drive around East Texas in a Cadillac full of Yarborough stickers and to be obnoxious and insult gas station attendants as slow. The man would say he was busy and had to hurry "to work for Mr. Yarborough." Yarborough made it to the primary runoff and came surprisingly close to beating Shivers despite receiving almost no newspaper endorsements, being out-fundraised, and being the target of nasty attacks.

Related Topics:
1952 - Allan Shivers - 1954 - Shivercrats - Adlai Stevenson - Brown v. Board of Education - East Texas

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Running for governor

In 1956, Yarborough made it to the primary runoff for governor against U.S. Sen. Price Daniel. After being endorsed by former opponent and governor W. Lee O'Daniel, and making aggressive attacks on the Shivers-backed candidate, Yarborough looked to win the runoff but lost by about 9,000 votes. It is believed (by Yarborough, his supporters, and biographer) that the election was stolen due to irregular voting in East Texas and other places and that Yarborough really won the runoff by 30,000 votes.

Related Topics:
1956 - Price Daniel - W. Lee O'Daniel

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Nevertheless, Yarborough's runs for governor had raised his stature and popularity in the state as he had been campaigning for six straight years for office. When Daniel resigned from the Senate in 1957 to become governor, Yarborough ran in the special election to fill the empty seat. With no runoff allowed he needed only a plurality of votes to win. Ironically, his many runs for governor made him the best positioned candidate to become a U.S. Senator. Yarborough won the special election with 38% of the vote to join fellow Texan Lyndon Johnson in the Senate. In office, Ralph Yarborough was a very different kind of Southern senator. He refused to sign the Southern Manifesto opposing integration and supported national Democratic goals of more funding for healthcare, education, and environment. Himself a veteran, he worked to expand the GI Bill of Rights to cold war veterans.

Related Topics:
Lyndon Johnson - Southern Manifesto - Veteran - GI Bill of Rights - Cold war

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Becoming a senator

In 1958, Ralph Yarborough easily defeated conservative William A. Blakley in the Democratic primary and cruised on to victory in the general election against Republican Roy Whittenburg. As a senator, Yarborough got Congress to pass and John F. Kennedy to sign, a bill making Padre Island a national seashore.

Related Topics:
1958 - William A. Blakley - John F. Kennedy - Padre Island

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Ralph Yarborough rode in the Dallas, Texas motorcade where John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. Yarborough was in the same convertible as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, and secret service agent Rufus Youngblood, only two cars away from the presidential limousine.

Related Topics:
Dallas, Texas - John F. Kennedy was assassinated - 1963 - Vice President - Lyndon B. Johnson - Lady Bird Johnson - Secret service - Rufus Youngblood

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In 1964, Yarborough again won the primary without a runoff and went on to general election victory with 56.2% in LBJ's 1964 Democratic landslide. His Republican opponent was future president George H.W. Bush who attacked Yarborough as a left-wing demagogue and for his vote in favor of the Civil Rights Act. Yarborough denounced Bush as an extremist to the right of that year's GOP nominee for president Barry Goldwater and as a rich easterner and a carpetbagger trying to buy a Senate seat. It has since been found that John Connally was covertly aiding Bush instead of party nominee Yarborough against President Johnson's wishes by teaching voters how to vote split ticket.

Related Topics:
1964 - George H.W. Bush - Civil Rights Act - GOP - Barry Goldwater - John Connally

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Although Yarborough supported Johnson's domestic agenda, he was went public with his critism of Johnson's foreign policy and the Vietnam War after Johnson announced his retirement. Yarborough supported Robert F. Kennedy until his assassination, then supported Eugene McCarthy until his loss in Chicago, and finally backed Hubert Humphrey for President in the pivotal campaign of 1968. In 1969, Senator Yarborough became chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.

Related Topics:
Vietnam War - Robert F. Kennedy - Eugene McCarthy - Hubert Humphrey - 1968 - 1969

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Losing the position

In 1970, South Texan businessman and former congressman Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr.. won an upset victory against Yarborough in the Democratic primary when Yarborough was focusing on the general election. Bentsen played on voters' fears of societal breakdown and urban riots and made an issue of Yarborough's opposition to the Vietnam War. Yarborough was an antique out of place in the modern era he claimed. Said Bentsen, "It would be nice if Ralph Yarborough would vote for his state every once in a while." Bentsen went on to win the general election against George H.W. Bush.

Related Topics:
1970 - Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr.

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In 1972, Ralph Yarborough made a comeback effort to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator as a challenger of Republican Sen. John Tower. Yarborough won the first round of the primary, coming short 526 votes of a full victory. Again, Yarborough suspected vote fraud from the conservative wing. He lost in the primary runoff to Barefoot Sanders in an anti-incumbent sweep after the Sharpstown Bank-stock Scandal despite neither being an incumbent nor involved at all with the scandal. It was Yarborough's last run for office.

Related Topics:
1972 - John Tower - Barefoot Sanders - Sharpstown Bank-stock Scandal

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