James C. Oliver

James C. Oliver

James Churchill Oliver (born August 6, 1895 in South Portland , Maine , † December 25, 1986 in Orlando , Florida ) was an American politician . Between 1937 and 1943 and again from 1959 to 1961 he represented the state of Maine in the US House of Representatives .

Career

James Oliver attended the public schools of his home country and then until 1917 Bowdoin College in Brunswick . Between 1917 and 1919 he took part in the First World War as an officer in the US Army . At the end of the war he had made it to major in the staff of the Inspector General .

Oliver later worked in the Portland insurance business. He served on the South Portland City Council in 1932 and 1933. Politically, he joined the Republican Party . As their candidate, he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in 1936 in the first constituency of Maine . There he took over on January 3, 1937, the successor to the Democrat Simon M. Hamlin , whom he had defeated in the election. After two re-elections, he was able to complete three legislative terms in Congress by January 3, 1943 . In the first few years, further New Deal laws were introduced and passed there. Since December 1941, the work of the House of Representatives has also been determined by the events of World War II . In 1942, Oliver was no longer nominated by his party for another legislative term.

During World War II , Oliver served in the Coast Guard between 1943 and 1946. He then worked in Maine and California in the real estate and insurance industries. In the meantime he had switched to the Democratic Party. As their candidate, he ran unsuccessfully against the Republican Burton Cross for the office of governor of Maine in 1952 . In 1954 and 1956, Oliver sought unsuccessfully to return to Congress. In 1958 he was re-elected to the US House of Representatives, where he replaced Robert Hale on January 3, 1959 , who had exercised this mandate as Oliver's successor since 1943. Since James Oliver lost to Peter A. Garland in the 1960 elections, he could only spend one more term in Congress until January 3, 1961.

In 1960, Oliver was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles , where John F. Kennedy was nominated as a presidential candidate. He then returned to the Maine real estate market. He later moved to Orlando, Florida, where he died on December 25, 1986.

Web links

• James C. Oliver in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)