Thomas Werdel
Member of theU.S. House of Representatives from California's10th district
In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1953
Preceded by	Alfred J. Elliott
Succeeded by	Charles Gubser
Member of theCalifornia State Assembly from the39th district
In office January 3, 1943 – January 6, 1947
Preceded by	Alfred W. Robertson
Succeeded by	Wright Elwood James[1]
Personal details
Born	Thomas Harold Werdel (1905-09-13)September 13, 1905 Emery, South Dakota, U.S.
Died	September 30, 1966(1966-09-30) (aged 61) Bakersfield, California, U.S.
Party	Republican
Other political affiliations	State's Rights Party (1956)
Spouse	Rosemary Cutter ​ (m. 1934)​
Children	3
Alma mater	University of California at Berkeley UC Berkeley School of Law

Thomas Harold Werdel (September 13, 1905 – September 30, 1966) was an American politician and lawyer who served as anassembly member (1943-47) andRepresentative (1949-53) from California as a member of theRepublican Party.

Werdel was staunchly conservative and supported Senator Robert Taft's 1952 presidential bid and later served asT. Coleman Andrews's vice presidential running mate on the State's Rights Party ticket.

Thomas Harold Werdel was born to Mary Laura Burke and Bernard Werdel in Emery, South Dakota on September 13, 1905.^[2] In 1912, Werdel moved with his parents to California and three years later in 1915, they settled inKern County, California.^[3] He attended the public schools and Kern County Union High School. He graduated from theUniversity of California at Berkeley in 1930, and from theUC Berkeley School of Law in 1936. He wasadmitted to the bar in 1936, and started to practice law inBakersfield, California.

On June 24, 1942, he announced his candidacy for the39th Assembly District and won both the Democratic and Republican nominations leading him to run unopposed in the general election.^[4][5] Shortly before the election he was selected as Kern County's delegate to the California Republican state convention.^[6]

After taking office Werdel was appointed as chairman of the Judiciary Committee and also appointed as a member of the Conservation, Natural Resources and Planning, Roads and Highways, Government Efficiency and Economy, and Elections and Reapportionment committees.^[7] The first legislation he proposed in the state Assembly was a resolution requesting the federal government to grant funds to help in the construction of theMadera andFriant-Kern canals.^[8] Following the riot onHollywood Black Friday in 1945, he served on a committee investigation into theConference of Studio Unions and accused them of being guilty of conspiracy.^[9] Werdel submitted a resolution to condemn Attorney GeneralRobert W. Kenny that accused him of being an associate of subversive communist groups, but was overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of 57 to 19 in the Assembly.^[10]

In 1946, he announced that he would not seek reelection and that he would not run for the state Senate as he was quitting state politics.^[11] In 1947, after leaving office, he was appointed to the Citizens Advisory Committee on Legislative Constitutional Revision.^[12]

In March 1948, he announced his intention to run forCalifornia's 10th Congressional District seat and filed to run in both the Democratic and Republican primaries where he easily won the Republican primary and narrowly won the Democratic primary.^[13][14] During the campaign Governor and Republican vice presidential nomineeEarl Warren showed support for Werdel.^[15] In thegeneral election he easily defeated theProgressive nominee; he was one of the four Republican gains that year, and would serve in theEighty-first andEighty-second Congresses from 1949 to 1953.^[16][17]

In 1949, he accused union leaders, specifically from theNational Education Association,AFL andCIO, of plotting to use an education aid bill created by Democrats to defeat SenatorRobert A. Taft in Ohio's 1950 Senate election.^[18] During the1952 Republican primaries Werdel announced that he would run a slate of seventy delegates in the California primary to lead a pro-Taft delegation to the Republican National Convention rather than a pro-Warren one and he attacked Warren for supportingsocialized medicine.^[19] However, GovernorEarl Warren, a favorite son candidate, once again controlled California's votes.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1952 to theEighty-third Congress after he was redistricted into the14th Congressional District and was defeated byHarlan Hagen.

He resumed the practice of law. In1956, he was the running mate ofT. Coleman Andrews as the State's Rights Party candidates; they won 107,929 votes (0.17%), doing best in Virginia, where they received 6.16% of the vote.^[20] During the1960 and1964 presidential elections he served as a campaign adviser toRichard Nixon andBarry Goldwater.^[21]

On September 30, 1966, he died inBakersfield, California, and was survived by his wife and three sons. He was interred in Greenlawn Memorial Park.^[22]

• T. Coleman Andrews

• United States Congress."Thomas H. Werdel (id: W000298)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Join California - Thomas H. Werdel

• 1905 births
• 1966 deaths
• 20th-century American far-right politicians
• 1956 United States vice-presidential candidates
• American segregationists
• California lawyers
• Candidates in the 1952 United States presidential election
• Republican Party members of the California State Assembly
• Politicians from Bakersfield, California
• People from Hanson County, South Dakota
• Republican Party United States representatives from California
• UC Berkeley School of Law alumni
• 20th-century members of the California State Legislature
• 20th-century United States representatives
• Neo-Confederates
• American anti-communists

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