Roger Branigin

Roger Douglas Branigin (born July 26, 1902 in Franklin , Indiana , † November 19, 1975 ) was an American politician and from 1965 to 1969 the 42nd governor of the state of Indiana.

Early years

Roger Branigin attended Franklin College and then studied law at Harvard Law School . Following an old family tradition, he became a lawyer and joined a law firm in Lafayette in 1938 . During the Second World War he made it to the position of lieutenant colonel in the US Army .

Branigin was a member of the Democratic Party . Between 1926 and 1929 he served as the assistant prosecutor in Johnson County . From 1930 to 1938 he was an advisor to the Federal Land Bank in Louisville ( Kentucky ); between 1948 and 1950 he was a member of the Indiana State Conservation Commission . Branigin was also president of the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce and curator of the Tippecanoe County Historic Association . In 1956, Branigin ran unsuccessfully for his party's nomination for governor of Indiana. In 1964, however, he made the leap into this office, where he prevailed with 56.2 percent of the vote against the Republican Richard O. Ristine.

Indiana Governor

Branigin took up his new office on January 11, 1965. During his tenure, the Poll Tax was repealed. Through this and similar laws in various states of the USA, the right to vote was linked to a certain tax revenue. This meant that poorer citizens were excluded from voting. In the southern states , most African Americans were excluded from the elections for decades because they could not meet the financial requirements to comply with these laws. In the second half of the 20th century, these laws were gradually abolished, as was the case in Indiana under Governor Branigin. Branigin also abolished the property tax on household goods. He also fought against the then widespread corruption in the state administration and had some success with it.

In the 1968 presidential campaign , Branigin took on the role of a "Favorite Son" in Indiana. This was used to describe politicians who only competed for victory in the primary in their home country in order to transfer the electoral votes they had acquired to another candidate at the nomination party convention. In this case, Branigin was asked by President Lyndon B. Johnson to take his place in Indiana, as he hoped to get a higher share of the vote than if he ran for it himself. When Johnson then surprisingly withdrew from the election campaign and declared his resignation, Branigin left his votes from the Indiana primary to the incumbent Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey . After all, with 31% of the votes in the area code, he was second behind Robert F. Kennedy , who had come to 42%.

After the end of his tenure, Branigin returned to practice as a lawyer. He was a curator of Franklin College and became a member of the Indiana Historical Society . Roger Branigin died in November 1975. He was married to Josephine Mardis, with whom he had two children.

Web links

• Roger Branigin in the National Governors Association (English)
• Indiana Historical Bureau (English)
• Roger Branigin in the database of Find a Grave (English)