Gale W. McGee

Gale W. McGee

Gale William McGee (born March 17, 1915 in Lincoln , Nebraska , † April 9, 1992 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . From 1959 to 1977 he sat in the US Senate for the state of Wyoming .

Early years

McGee was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. He attended public schools and was originally Jura study. Due to the global economic crisis , however, he could not implement this plan, but instead went to the State Teachers' School in Wayne . In 1936 he graduated from there and was henceforth a teacher at a high school . During this work, he studied at the University of Colorado Boulder history . At Nebraska Wesleyan University , Iowa State University and the University of Notre Dame he was active as a university lecturer in the following years. In 1946, McGee received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago . He then followed a call from the University of Wyoming , where he taught as a professor.

Political career

McGee was a member of the Democratic Party. In 1950 he was proposed as a candidate for the US House of Representatives , but declined because he wanted to get to know Wyoming and the people who live there better. He was drawn from university into politics in 1955 and 1956 when he worked as an assistant to Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney .

In 1958 he finally left the university to run for the Senate. His program consisted of youthful and completely new ideas. His campaign caught the attention of Eleanor Roosevelt , who started a national fundraising campaign for him. The election was very narrowly in favor of McGee. He prevailed against the Republican incumbent Frank A. Barrett . At the beginning of his tenure in the Senate, he became a member of the Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce and the prestigious Senate Committee on Appropriations . He was the first freshmen to receive this honor.

In 1958, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower nominated Republican Lewis Strauss as the new Secretary of Commerce . At that time, the 13 predecessors of Strauss prevailed in their nomination in an average of eight days and were confirmed by the Senate. Due to personal and professional differences, Senator Clinton Presba Anderson announced that Senate confirmation of the nomination was unlikely. He found an ally in McGee, who sat on the lead Interstate and Foreign Committee. The committee hearings lasted a total of 16 days, which was unusually long for a trade minister. The committee recommended confirmation to the Senate with nine to eight votes. Due to the fact that the Democrats had an extremely comfortable majority in the Senate, but President Eisenhower was very popular with the people, the rejection of the Strauss nomination was by no means considered certain. As expected, the final vote was then tight. Strauss failed with 46 to 49 votes. At that time, it was only the eighth cabinet member who was not confirmed by the Senate.

McGee had a personal friendship with President John F. Kennedy . Both knew each other from the Senate. McGee accompanied the President during a trip through Wyoming in September 1963.

In 1964, McGee was first re-elected as a Senator. In his second term, he became a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Civil Service . During his second term, McGee supported President Lyndon B. Johnson's views on the Vietnam War . At the time, Johnson was considering appointing McGee as United States Ambassador to the United Nations after Arthur Goldberg's tenure , instead appointing George Wildman Ball .

McGee was re-elected for a third term in 1970. He was able to prevail more clearly than expected against his opponent John S. Wold . He returned to the same committees as six years earlier. The third term of office was marked by the Watergate affair . He also took positions that were unpopular in Wyoming, such as the introduction of the speed limit of 55 mph during the oil crisis .

In 1976 he was defeated by his Republican challenger Malcolm Wallop . In 1977, McGee left the Senate.

Further career

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed McGee to succeed William S. Mailliard as Permanent Representative of the United States to the Organization of American States . He held this post until 1981. After leaving as ambassador, he founded a consulting company.

Private life

McGee was married to Loraine Baker. They both had four children. He died in Washington, DC in 1992 and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery .

Posthumous work

Wyoming Congressmen passed a bill in January 2007 to rename the Laramie post office the Gale W. McGee Post Office . The House of Representatives approved on January 29, 2007, followed by the Senate on February 7. President George W. Bush signed the bill on March 7, 2007.

Web links

• Gale W. McGee in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Gale W. McGee in the database of Find a Grave (English)