Thomas Gore

Thomas Pryor Gore

Thomas Pryor Gore (born December 10, 1870 in Webster County , Mississippi , † March 16, 1949 in Washington, DC ) was an American politician .

biography

Early life

Gore lost his sight in an accident as a child and later made history as the first blind senator in the United States. Despite being blind, Gore went his own way and graduated from school in Walthall, Mississippi , in 1890 .

In order to finance his studies at Cumberland University of Tennessee , he worked from 1890 to 1891 as a substitute teacher at an elementary school. In 1892, after completing his law degree , he opened a law firm in Walthall.

In 1895 Gore moved to Corsicana ( Texas ), where in 1898 he ran unsuccessfully for the Populist Party for a seat in the US House of Representatives . At the turn of the century, Gore moved to Lawton in the Oklahoma Territory , where he also worked as a lawyer.

Political career

Gore served on the Oklahoma Territorial Council from 1903 to 1905 and was elected Senator for the Democratic Party after Oklahoma became a state in 1907 , a role he held from December 11, 1907 through March 3 Exercised in 1921.

During his tenure in the Senate, Gore sat on the following boards and committees:

• 1911–1912: Committee for Road Construction and Railways
• 1913–1918: Committee for Agriculture and Forestry
• 1919–1920: Ministry of Justice's Financial Control Committee

In 1913 he was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the staff of the commission that was supposed to build up agricultural relations with the USA in Europe and thus regulate the exchange of goods. Gore also served as a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1912 to 1916 .

In 1930, after a nine year absence, Gore was re-elected to the Senate and took office on March 4, 1931. This time, however, he was only able to defend his seat for one term and served until January 3, 1937. During his second term in office, he sat from 1933 to 1936 on the Committee on Interoceanic Relations, which later became the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation was renamed.

Late life

After leaving the Senate, Gore opened a law firm in Washington, which he ran until his death at the age of 78.

family

In 1900 Gore married Nina Belle Kay, the daughter of a Texan farmer. They had two children, Nina Gore and Thomas Notley Gore. Nina Gore married the aviation pioneer and former decathlete Eugene Vidal in 1922 ; the marriage was divorced in 1935. She is the mother of the writer Gore Vidal , who is Thomas Gore's grandson.

Web links

Commons : Thomas Pryor Gore  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Thomas Gore in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)