Herman Welker | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator fromIdaho | |
| In office January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1957 | |
| Preceded by | Glen H. Taylor |
| Succeeded by | Frank Church |
| Member of theIdaho Senate | |
| In office January 5, 1949 – January 7, 1951 | |
| Preceded by | James Young |
| Succeeded by | J. Ben Wherry |
| Constituency | Payette County |
| Prosecuting Attorney ofWashington County, Idaho | |
| In office 1929–1935 | |
| Preceded by | Delton L. Carter |
| Succeeded by | John J. Peacock |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Herman Orville Welker[1] (1906-12-11)December 11, 1906 Cambridge, Idaho, U.S. |
| Died | October 30, 1957(1957-10-30) (aged 50) Bethesda, Maryland, U.S. |
| Resting place | Arlington National Cemetery |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Gladys Taylor Pence Welker (m. 1930) |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | University of Idaho (LL.B.) |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  U.S. Army Air Forces |
| Years of service | 1943–44 |
| Rank | Corporal |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Herman Orville Welker (December 11, 1906 – October 30, 1957) was an American politician from the state ofIdaho. He was a member of theIdaho Republican Party and served one term in theUnited States Senate, from 1951 to 1957.[2][3]
Born inCambridge, Idaho, Welker was the youngest of seven children of John Thornton and Anna Zella Shepherd Welker, who had moved fromNorth Carolina and started a potato farm. He was the grandson of Rev. George W. Welker of North Carolina.[4] He attended grade school in Cambridge and high school inWeiser. After graduation fromWeiser High School in 1924, Welker went north toMoscow to attend theUniversity of Idaho, where he started off in a general studies program and was a member of theSigma Chifraternity.[5] He switched to theCollege of Law in 1926 and graduated with anLL.B. degree in 1929.[6]
In April 1929, Welker was appointed prosecuting attorney forWashington County; he graduated from law school in May, and wasadmitted to the bar later that year. He was re-elected and served as prosecutor from 1929 to 1935. In 1937, Welker moved to Los Angeles, where he had a private practice until 1943, when he enlisted in theU.S. Army Air Forces forWorld War II. He served until 1944, when he returned to Idaho and began to practice law inPayette. He was a member of thestate senate from 1949 to 1951.
In in 1950, Welker ran for theU.S. Senate,[7] asboth seats were up for election that year. He won August's Republican primary overCongressmanJohn Sanborn andGovernorC. A. Robins,[8] then defeated former Democratic SenatorD. Worth Clark in the general election.[9] Welker gained seats on several important committees, including theArmed Services andJudiciary committees. He soon distinguished himself as one of the mostconservative and anticommunist senators, becoming a leading member and spokesperson for the Republican Party's right wing.[2]
In the early 1950s, Welker toldWashington Senators ownerClark Griffith aboutHarmon Killebrew, a youngbaseball player fromPayette who was batting .847 for asemi-professional team at the time.[10][11] Griffith told hisfarm directorOssie Bluege about the tip and Bluege flew to Idaho to watch Killebrew play.[12] TheBoston Red Sox also expressed interest but Bluege succeeded in signing Killebrew to a $50,000 contract on June 19, 1954.[11][13][14]Killebrew (1936–2011) had aHall of Fame career in themajor leagues, with 573home runs.
In the early 1950s, Welker became closely associated with fellow Republican SenatorJoseph McCarthy ofWisconsin and "McCarthyism", so much so that he was often referred to by Senate colleagues as "Little Joe from Idaho."[15] In 1954, Welker was McCarthy's chief defender during censure proceedings in the U.S. Senate against McCarthy for the questionable investigative techniques McCarthy had used in pursuing individuals he accused of being communists, and others he accused of being homosexuals, within the government.[16] Welker was one of 22 Republicans (out of a total of 46 Republican senators) who voted against the censure of McCarthy in 1954 for these"red scare" communist witch hunts, and his so-called "lavender scare" tactics aimed at homosexuals in government.[17]
Welker, along with Republican SenatorStyles Bridges of New Hampshire, was a key collaborator with McCarthy in the blackmail of Democratic SenatorLester C. Hunt of Wyoming and his son, which led to Hunt's suicide in his Senate office on June 19, 1954.[18][19][20][21] Welker threatened Hunt, a staunch opponent of McCarthy's tactics, that if he did not immediately resign from the Senate and end his re-election bid that year, Welker would see that the younger Hunt's arrest for soliciting an undercover policeman was prosecuted and would widely publicize Hunt Jr.'s alleged homosexuality. Welker also threatened InspectorRoy Blick of the Morals Division of the Washington Police Department with the loss of his job if he failed to prosecute the younger Hunt.[22][23] After Hunt's suicide, a Republican,Edward D. Crippa, was appointed by the Republican acting governor of Wyoming,Clifford Joy Rogers, to fill the vacant seat.[24]
Alex Ross inThe New Yorker wrote in 2012 of an event "loosely dramatized in thenovel andfilmAdvise & Consent [in which] SenatorLester Hunt, of Wyoming, killed himself after ... Welker [and others] ... threatened to expose Hunt's son as a homosexual".[25]
In 1955, Welker would be one of two non-Southern senators to vote against the nomination ofJohn Marshall Harlan II tothe Supreme Court,[26] opposing Harlan because he was unsatisfied that Harlan "adheres to the doctrine that American sovereignty could not and must not be diluted."[27] A year later, he was one of only five senators from outside the former Conferderacy to vote against the nomination ofSimon Sobeloff tothe Fourth Circuit.[28]
In 1956, Welkerran for a second term in the Senate. Although he won the Republican nomination, again defeating Sanborn, he lost the general election to 32-year-old DemocratFrank Church of Boise, by 46,315 votes, Welker received 39% to Church's 56%. One of the issues was whether the proposedHells Canyon Dam would be publicly or privately owned with one of Church's aides saying "The campaign was Frank Church againstIdaho Power. They fought him tooth and nail."[29]
The defeat increased Democratic control of the Senate and led to much anger within the Republican Party, with Joseph McCarthy even accusing PresidentDwight Eisenhower of not supporting Welker's reelection campaign enough.[30][31]
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | D. Worth Clark | 77,180 | 38.3% | Herman Welker | 124,237 | 61.7% | ||||||||
| 1956 | Frank Church | 149,096 | 56.2% | Herman Welker (inc.) | 102,781 | 38.7% | Glen H. Taylor | 13,415 | 5.1% |
After leaving the Senate in January 1957, Welker practiced law inBoise and participated in farming. After a few months, however, he became ill, and traveled toBethesda, Maryland, for medical treatment at theNational Institutes of Health. He was admitted on October 16, 1957, where he was diagnosed with abrain tumor. Operations were quickly performed, but Welker died later that month at age 50.[2][32] McCarthy had died earlier that year in Bethesda (Welker had attended McCarthy's funeral).
Welker's funeral was atFort Myer and he was interred inArlington National Cemetery.[33][34][35] He married Gladys Taylor Pence in 1930, and they had a daughter, Nancy.[2]
Attribution
This article incorporatespublic domain material fromBiographical Directory of the United States Congress.Federal government of the United States.
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Republican Party nominee,U.S. Senator (Class 3) from Idaho 1950 (won),1956 (lost) | Succeeded by |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. senator (Class 3) from Idaho January 3, 1951 – January 3, 1957 Served alongside:Henry Dworshak | Succeeded by |
| Class 2 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
