William F. Knowland

William F. Knowland

William Fife Knowland (born June 26, 1908 in Alameda , California , † February 23, 1974 in Guerneville , California) was an American politician . As a member of the Republican Party , he was a member of the US Senate from 1945 to 1959 , where he represented the state of California. From 1953 to 1959 he was also the parliamentary leader of his party in the Senate . In 1958 he was also a Republican candidate for governor of California .

Career

Earlier years and political advancement

Born in 1908, he was the son of Joseph R. Knowland , who served in the US House of Representatives from 1904 to 1915 . His birth mother died just a month after Knowland was born; later he was raised by his father's second wife. Knowland studied political science at the University of California at Berkeley , which he graduated in 1929.

Knowland got enthusiastic about politics early on. As a teenager, he was helping out locally in the Republican presidential campaigns. In November 1932 he was elected as a member of the California State Assembly . After the end of the two-year legislature, he successfully ran for the California Senate . In 1938 he did not seek to reapply for his mandate, but Knowland remained very active in the Republican party organization of California. Here he was particularly involved in the organization of various election campaigns. After the entry of the USA into the Second World War, he went in 1942 to the armed forces . In the spring of 1944 he was briefly in Europe.

Career in the US Senate

Long-time Senator Hiram Johnson died in August 1945 . Thereupon California Governor named Earl Warren Knowland as his successor. On September 6, 1945 he officially took the oath to be a senator. In November 1946 he won his first election as Senator by a clear margin. Another re-election followed in November 1952. Because of his great popularity, he also won the Democratic primary that year . He was then able to win the actual election against a non-party applicant with a vote share of 88 percent. In the Senate, Knowland served on the Economic and National Defense Committees.

Through speeches at the Republican party congresses to nominate the presidential candidates in 1948 and 1952 , Knowland also succeeded in sharpening its inner-party profile. Although he supported President Dwight D. Eisenhower , Knowland and Vice President Richard Nixon were divided by a mutual dislike. This goes back to the time from 1951 to 1953, when Nixon held the other Senate seat for California. When Senator Robert A. Taft died in August 1953 , he was elected to succeed him as President of the Republicans in the Senate. This gave him the influential position of Majority Leader . He had to give up this office in early 1955 after the lost congressional elections to the Democrat and later US President Lyndon B. Johnson . Knowland remained head of the Republican faction. He was therefore a minority leader from 1955 to 1959 after the Republicans failed to regain a majority in the Congress Chamber in 1956 despite President Eisenhower's re-election . In early 1956 he briefly considered running for president in the event of Eisenhower's rejection. But after this did happen, Knowland quickly rejected such plans.

1958 gubernatorial election and end of political career

Play media file

1958 television broadcast of Knowland's candidacy for governor

In early 1958, Knowland surprised by declaring that he would not run for his Senate seat a third time and would instead run for the office of California governor . He initially came into conflict with the Republican incumbent Goodwin Knight , who was planning to be re-elected. Knight accused Knowland of wanting to “abuse” the governorship merely as a stepping stone to get better chances for the Republican presidential candidacy in 1960. At that time, an intra-party power struggle had broken out over the claim to leadership of the California Republicans between Knowland, Knight and Vice President Nixon, all three of whom had ambitions for the presidency. A compromise was later found for the 1958 elections, which President Eisenhower also supported: Knowland would be nominated as his party's candidate for governorship, while Knight would run for the vacant Senate mandate. The project was called the “Big Switch” by the Republicans during the election campaign, but it turned out to be less popular with the population. Knowland's advocacy of a so-called right-to-labor law , which was to be voted on by referendum on election day, also proved to be less popular among voters. In the gubernatorial election on November 4, 1958, Knowland was clearly defeated by his democratic adversary Pat Brown , who received 59.7 percent of the vote. Knowland was far behind with a 40 percent share of the vote. The greatest beneficiary of these elections, in which Knight was also defeated, was Richard Nixon, whose path to the Republican presidential candidacy in 1960 was now decisively paved by the defeats of his two rivals.

Knowland resigned from Congress in January 1959. He was succeeded by the Democrat Clair Engle . Knowland's deputy Everett Dirksen took over the leadership of the Republican faction .

Last years

After his defeat, Knowland's political career was effectively over. However, he did not retire completely from public life, but switched to the newspaper industry. Even when he was no longer running for public office, he often spoke out on political issues. In 1966, after the death of his father, he became the editor of the Oakland Tribune . He also remained an important figure within the Republican party organization of California until the late 1960s. After the end of his political career, Knowland had to struggle with financial problems. As early as 1959, his father had to sell a radio station he owned to pay off gambling debts. On February 23, 1974 Knowland committed 65-year-old using a gun suicide . He found his final resting place in the Mountain View City Cemetery, California.

Private life

In 1926, Knowland married Helen Davis Herrick, with whom he had five children. The couple divorced in spring 1972. Just a month later he married Ann Dickson, who brought two children from a previous marriage into the family. Knowland belonged to the Methodist Church .

literature

• Gayle B. Montgomery and James W. Johnson: One Step from the White House: The Rise and Fall of Senator William F. Knowland . Berkeley: University of California Press 1998. ISBN 0-520-21194-4

Web links

Commons : William F. Knowland  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• William F. Knowland in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• Biography at H-Net (English)
• Information at the US Senate (English)