Fred R. Harris | |
|---|---|
 Official portraitc. 1968 | |
| 32nd Chair of the Democratic National Committee | |
| In office January 14, 1969 – March 5, 1970 | |
| Preceded by | Larry O'Brien |
| Succeeded by | Larry O'Brien |
| United States Senator fromOklahoma | |
| In office November 4, 1964 – January 3, 1973 | |
| Preceded by | J. Howard Edmondson |
| Succeeded by | Dewey F. Bartlett |
| Member of theOklahoma Senate from the 17th district | |
| In office 1957–1964 | |
| Preceded by | Bill Logan |
| Succeeded by | Ralph W. Graves |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1930-11-13)November 13, 1930 Cotton County, Oklahoma, U.S. |
| Died | November 23, 2024(2024-11-23) (aged 94) Albuquerque, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 3 |
| Education | University of Oklahoma (BA,LLB) |
Fred Roy Harris (November 13, 1930 – November 23, 2024) was an American politician fromOklahoma who served from 1957 to 1964 as a member of theOklahoma Senate and from 1964 to 1973 as a member of theUnited States Senate.
Harris was elected to theOklahoma Senate after graduating from theUniversity of Oklahoma College of Law. He ousted the appointed U.S. Senate incumbent,J. Howard Edmondson, and won a1964 special election to finishRobert S. Kerr's term, narrowly defeating football coachBud Wilkinson. Harris strongly supported theGreat Society programs and criticized PresidentLyndon B. Johnson's handling of theVietnam War. He wasreelected in 1966 and declined to seek another term in 1972.
From 1969 to 1970, Harris chaired theDemocratic National Committee. In the1968 presidential election, Democratic nomineeHubert Humphrey strongly considered him as his running mate. Harris unsuccessfully sought the Democraticpresidential nomination in 1972 and1976. After 1976, he was a professor at theUniversity of New Mexico.
Harris was born on November 13, 1930, inCotton County, Oklahoma, nearWalters, Oklahoma, the son of Eunice Alene (Pearson) and Fred Byron Harris, a sharecropper.[1] His parents disagreed on whether his middle name should be "Ray" or "Roy", and his handwritten birth certificate was ambiguous, allowing Harris to choose; he eventually used his mother's preferred name, Roy.[2]
Harris attended theUniversity of Oklahoma (OU) on a scholarship, graduating in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in history and political science.[2] He then entered the OU law school, where he was administrative assistant to the dean and successively book editor and managing editor of theLaw Review. The August 1956 issue contained his first published article. He received the LL B. degree with distinction and was admitted to the bar in 1954.[1]
Harris was elected to theOklahoma Senate in 1956 and served in it until 1964. For most of that time, he was one of its youngest members. During his tenure he introduced legislation to prohibitrace discrimination in state employment.[2] He made an unsuccessful bid forgovernor of Oklahoma in1962, which made him better known throughout the state.[3]
In1964, Harris ran to serve the remainder of the Senate term ofRobert S. Kerr, who had died in office. With Kerr's family's support, he defeated former governorJ. Howard Edmondson, who had appointed himself to succeed Kerr, in the Democratic primary.[1][2] The general election was a high-profile campaign against the Republican nominee, legendaryOklahoma Sooners football coachBud Wilkinson.[2] Both parties invited political leaders from out of state to campaign for their nominees. Republicans brought former Vice PresidentRichard Nixon to campaign for Wilkinson, while Harris hosted PresidentLyndon B. Johnson and First LadyLady Bird Johnson.[4] Harris defeated Wilkinson by 21,390 votes,[1] becoming one of the youngest members of the U.S. Senate. At 33 years old, he was the youngest senator-elect in Oklahoma history.[1] His Senate tenure began on November 4, 1964.[5]
Harris firmly supported President Johnson'sGreat Society programs, which were often unpopular in Oklahoma.[2] He voted for theVoting Rights Act of 1965,[6] and while he missed the votes pertaining to the confirmation ofThurgood Marshall to theU.S. Supreme Court in 1967 (he was away on official Senate business) and the passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1968 (he was absent because of illness), he supported both; it was announced on the Senate floor that, if he had been present, he would have voted for Marshall's confirmation[7] and the 1968 Act.[8] Harris was present for the vote on the motion to end the filibuster conducted by senators who opposed the 1968 Act, and voted to end the filibuster so that the Act could be voted on.[9]
Despite being quite liberal in an increasingly conservative state, Harris wasreelected to a full term in1966, defeating attorney Pat J. Patterson by 47,572 votes.[2][1] Patterson had tried to unseat Harris by announcing his support for a constitutional amendment proposed by SenatorEverett Dirksen to allow school boards to provide for prayers in public schools. Dirksen's amendment had enthusiastic political support in Oklahoma, but Harris opposed it in a public letter: "I believe in theseparation of church and state and I believe prayer and Bible reading should be voluntary".[1]
In July 1967, Johnson appointed Harris to theKerner Commission.[3][10] He quickly became one of its most active members and was deeply concerned about economically deprived Black urban residents. He also strongly supported agricultural programs, the Arkansas River Navigation Program, and the Indian health programs, which were all very popular in Oklahoma.[1]
Harris briefly chaired theDemocratic National Committee, preceded and succeeded in that position byLarry O'Brien.[3] He was one of the final two candidates presidential nomineeHubert Humphrey considered as his running mate in 1968; Humphrey chose U.S. SenatorEdmund Muskie because of Harris's young age of 37.[11] According to O'Brien, Humphrey vacillated between the two until finally choosing Muskie at the last minute. Harris broke with Johnson and Humphrey over theVietnam War.[1]
In 1970, Harris was a major player in the legislation to restore to the inhabitants of theTaos Pueblo 48,000 ac (19,425 ha) of mountain land that PresidentTheodore Roosevelt had taken and designated as theCarson National Forest early in the 20th century.[12] The struggle was particularly emotive since this return of Taos land included Blue Lake, which the Pueblo consider sacred. To pass the bill, Harris forged abipartisan alliance with PresidentRichard Nixon, with whom Harris sharply disagreed on numerous other issues, notably the Vietnam War. In doing so, he had to overcome powerful fellow Democratic SenatorsClinton Anderson andHenry M. Jackson, who firmly opposed returning the land. As recounted by Harris's wife, LaDonna, who was actively involved in the struggle, when the bill finally passed and came up to be signed by the president, Nixon looked up and said, "I can't believe I'm signing a bill that was sponsored by Fred Harris."[13]
In 1971, Harris was the only senator to vote against confirmingLewis F. Powell Jr. asAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He opposed Powell because he considered him elitist and to have a weak record on civil rights.[14] Harris andJ. William Fulbright were the only two Southern senators to vote not to confirm JusticeWilliam Rehnquist.[15]
Harris called for the abolition of theInterstate Commerce Commission.[16]
In 1973, Harris publishedThe New Populism, a book that articulates a political philosophy centered on economic decentralization and skepticism toward concentrated power in both the public and private sectors. He criticized the size and influence of major institutions, including government agencies, corporations, and labor unions. Among his policy proposals were eliminating subsidies for affluent students and wealthy farmers, a negative income tax and a land value tax, and creating a modernHomestead Act. Harris advocated employee ownership of corporations, tax reform to close loopholes benefiting high earners, and stronger antitrust enforcement to dismantle large companies and promote competition. He also called for public ownership of monopolies in sectors lacking competition and proposed bringing theFederal Reserve under full public ownership. Additionally, Harris was critical of regulatory bodies such as theInterstate Commerce Commission andCivil Aeronautics Board, which he viewed as serving entrenched interests rather than the public good.[17]
Harris did not seek another Senate term in 1972 and insteadran for president, but failed to attract support and ended his campaign after only 48 days.[2] He ran againfour years later; both his campaigns were populist and centered on what he called "economic democracy".[2][18] He also supported abortion rights,desegregation busing, and disbanding theCentral Intelligence Agency.[3] To keep expenses down, he traveled the country in arecreational vehicle and stayed in private homes, giving his hosts a card redeemable for one night's stay in theWhite House upon his election.[19] He emphasized issues affecting Native Americans and the working class. His interest in Native American rights was linked to his ancestry and that of his first wife,LaDonna Harris, aComanche who was deeply involved in Native American activism.[3]
After a surprising fourth-place finish in the1976 Iowa caucuses, Harris coined the term "winnowed in", saying, "The winnowing-out process has begun and we have just been 'winnowed in'." He won more than 10% of the vote, pushingMo Udall, who at one point led the polls, into fifth place. Harris was "winnowed out" just over a month later. He finished fourth in the New Hampshire primary and, a week later, third in Vermont and fifth in Massachusetts.[19] Harris remained in the contest for another month, with his best showing a fourth-place finish in Illinois, with 8%.[20][21][22][23] He suspended his campaign on April 8, 1976.[19]
Harris left electoral politics for academia after 1976. He became a professor ofpolitical science at theUniversity of New Mexico and wrote many books on political subjects,[1] includingPotomac Fever (Norton, 1977ISBN 0-393-05610-4) andDeadlock or Decision: The U.S. Senate and the Rise of National Politics (Oxford University, 1993ISBN 0-19-508025-4). In 2003, Harris was elected to theCommon Cause National Governing Board. He also wrote three novels. He lived inCorrales, New Mexico.[3]
Harris remained active well into his final years. In a 2023 interview, he expressed support for PresidentJoe Biden, saying concerns about Biden's age were unfounded, and strongly criticized former PresidentDonald Trump for hisattempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the consequentJanuary 6 United States Capitol attack.[24] The next year, he and his wife attended the2024 Democratic National Convention in support of the Democratic ticket.[25] His last book, a memoir titledReport from a Last Survivor, was published by theUniversity of New Mexico Press in September 2024.[26]
Harris marriedLaDonna Harris, born LaDonna Crawford, in 1949, and they had three children. They divorced in 1981, and he married Margaret Elliston the next year.[2][3]
Harris died at a hospital inAlbuquerque, New Mexico, on November 23, 2024, 10 days after his 94th birthday. He was the last living former U.S. senator who assumed office during theJohnson Administration and left office in the 1970s.[3][27]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Democratic nominee forU.S. Senator fromOklahoma (Class 2) 1964,1966 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chair of theDemocratic National Committee 1969–1970 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 2) from Oklahoma 1964–1973 Served alongside:Mike Monroney,Henry Bellmon | Succeeded by |
| Honorary titles | ||
| Preceded by | Most senior living U.S. senator (Sitting or former) 2019–2024 | Succeeded by |
| Class 2 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
