George McGill

George McGill

George McGill (born February 12, 1879 in Russell , Lucas County , Iowa , †  May 14, 1963 in Wichita , Kansas ) was an American politician ( Democratic Party ) who represented the state of Kansas in the US Senate .

George McGill moved to Kansas with his parents when he was five years old. There the family lived on a farm near Dundee in Barton County . After attending school, he graduated from Central Normal College in Great Bend in 1900 before he was admitted to the bar two years later after studying law and began practicing in Hoisington . From 1904 he worked as a lawyer in Wichita, the largest city in the state.

From 1907 to 1911 McGill served as the assistant district attorney in Sedgwick County ; In 1911 he was promoted to district attorney and remained so until 1915. On November 4, 1930, he then won the by-election for the mandate of US Senator Charles Curtis, elected Vice President of the United States , against Republican Henry Justin Allen , who had previously been named Curtis' successor had been. McGill was only the third Democrat after John Martin and William Howard Thompson to move into the Senate for Kansas. In 1932 he was re-elected. In the Senate, he was temporarily chairman of the pension committee and participated in the New Deal legislation for the Agricultural Adjustment Act .

In 1938 he failed to win re-election against Clyde Reed . In 1942, 1948 and 1954, McGill made unsuccessful attempts to return to the Senate. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him in 1944 to the Federal Customs Commission, of which he was a member until 1954; thereafter he worked as a lawyer in Wichita until his death in May 1963. To date, McGill is the last Democrat to serve in the US Senate for Kansas. The Republicans have appointed both senators without interruption since 1939; The two major parties did not succeed in this in any state longer.

Web links

Commons : George McGill  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• George McGill in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• George McGill in the database of Find a Grave (English)