Warren G. Magnuson

Warren G. Magnuson

Warren Grant Magnuson (born April 12, 1905 in Moorhead , Minnesota , † May 20, 1989 in Seattle , Washington ) was an American politician of the Democratic Party . He represented Washington State in both houses of Congress .

politics

Magnuson, whose parents came from Norway and Sweden , initially worked as a prosecutor in King County ; he was also a member of the state parliament of Washington . In 1936 he was elected to the US House of Representatives; he took the place of Marion Zioncheck after his suicide. In the three subsequent elections, Magnuson was confirmed in office. After the attack on Pearl Harbor , he was among the most vigorous advocates of America's entry into the war.

In 1944, he joined then in the US Senate , where he said the Court of Appeal exchanged Homer Bone followed. A little later he was drafted into the military and served on the aircraft carrier Enterprise for a few months during World War II . There he witnessed some fierce battles in the Pacific before President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the congressmen back home on active duty.

Warren Magnuson was reelected in 1950, 1956, 1962, 1968 and 1974. He served on the Commerce Committee throughout his tenure in the Senate ; in his last term of office he was also a member of the Funding Committee . After he and his friend Henry M. Jackson (since 1953) had represented the State of Washington in the Senate as a Democratic team for almost three decades , he was finally defeated by Republican Slade Gorton in the 1980 election . When he had to leave the Senate in January 1981, he was its longest-serving member ( dean ).

He was remembered politically, among other things, through the Magnuson Act of 1943, which was named after him and which allowed the Chinese to enter the United States again after 60 years; Chinese already living there were allowed to apply for US citizenship for the first time. He also campaigned to prevent supertankers from traveling through Puget Sound .

Private life

Warren Magnuson married Peggins Maddieux in 1928, who had won the Miss Seattle beauty pageant the previous year . After his divorce in 1935, he was seen with numerous well-known women. In his second marriage, he was married to Jermaine Peralta from 1964 until his death on May 20, 1989.

Appreciations

At the University of Washington , a building complex of the medical faculty was named after Warren Magnuson in 1970: The Warren G. Magnuson Health Sciences Building is one of the largest structures in the world . In 1977 Seattle's park was named Magnuson Park . The Washington State Democratic Party hosts an annual dinner in his honor. The Institute for Nursing in Spokane also bears his name.

Web links

• Warren G. Magnuson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Washington State History