Harold J. Powers

Harold Jay Powers (born October 8, 1900 in Eagleville , Modoc County , California , †  October 16, 1996 in Cedarville , California) was an American politician . Between 1953 and 1959 he was lieutenant governor of the state of California.

Career

Harold Powers attended public schools in his home country and then studied at the University of California Agriculture College at Davis , now the University of California at Davis. Later he worked in agriculture and especially in the field of cattle breeding. He owned several ranches in California, Nevada, and Idaho . Politically, he became a member of the Republican Party . Between 1934 and 1953 he sat in the Senate of California , whose President Pro Tempore he was since 1947. In 1948 and 1952 he took part as a delegate at the respective Republican National Conventions . In the 1956 presidential election , he was one of the Republican electors who officially elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower for his second term.

In 1953, Governor Earl Warren was named federal judge by President Eisenhower . Then the previous Lieutenant Governor Goodwin Knight was his successor in the office of governor. Harold Powers moved into the now vacant office of lieutenant governor. After re-election in 1954, he held this post between 1953 and 1959. He was deputy to Governor Knight, who, like Powers, was part of the liberal party wing. In 1962 he initially wanted to run for governor. Since he had the impression that the Republican party leadership wanted to support the future President Richard Nixon , he withdrew his candidacy. He joined an opposition within the Republican Party that Nixon did not want as governor of California. Powers became the leader of this group, which then successfully supported the Democrat Pat Brown , who had been Governor of California since 1959, and made his re-election possible.

After that, Harold Powers continued his agricultural activities. He died in Cedarville on October 16, 1996, a week after his 96th birthday.

Web links

• Harold J. Powers in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• The Political Graveyard
• Death report in the Los Angeles Times