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Vance Hartke
Hartke in 1958
United States Senator fromIndiana
In office January 3, 1959 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by	William E. Jenner
Succeeded by	Richard Lugar
Chair of theSenate Committee on Veterans' Affairs
In office January 3, 1971 – January 3, 1977
Preceded by	Office created
Succeeded by	Alan Cranston
Mayor of Evansville, Indiana
In office 1956–1958
Preceded by	Henry O. Roberts
Succeeded by	J. William Davidson
Personal details
Born	Rupert Vance Hartke (1919-05-31)May 31, 1919 Stendal, Indiana, U.S.
Died	July 27, 2003(2003-07-27) (aged 84) Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.
Resting place	Arlington National Cemetery
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Martha Hartke
Children	7
Alma mater	University of Evansville Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington
Profession	Attorney
Military service
Branch/service	United States Navy United States Coast Guard
Years of service	1942–1946
Rank	Lieutenant
Battles/wars	World War II

Rupert Vance Hartke (May 31, 1919 – July 27, 2003) was an American politician who served as aDemocraticUnited States Senator fromIndiana from 1959 until 1977. Hartke was elected to the Senate after serving as the mayor ofEvansville, Indiana. In the Senate, he supported theGreat Society and became a prominent opponent of theVietnam War. Hartke ran for president in the1972 Democratic primaries but withdrew after the first set of primaries. He left the Senate after losing his 1976 reelection campaign toRichard Lugar.

Hartke was born on May 31, 1919, inStendal, Indiana, the son of Ida Mary (Egbert), an organist, and Hugo Leonard Hartke, a teacher.^[1] His paternal grandparents were German, as were all of his maternal great-grandparents.^[2] He attended public schools in Stendal. He graduated from Evansville College (now theUniversity of Evansville) in 1940, and served in theUnited States Navy andUnited States Coast Guard from 1942 to 1946, rising fromseaman to lieutenant. Hartke graduated from theIndiana University Maurer School of Law in 1948.

After joining the Indiana State Bar in 1948, Hartke began practicing law inEvansville. He also worked as deputy prosecuting attorney ofVanderburgh County (1950–1951) and mayor ofEvansville (1956–1958), integrating the city swimming pools, before being elected to theUnited States Senate in 1958 and reelected in 1964 and 1970.

In theSenate, Hartke was best known for his opposition to theVietnam War and his chairmanship of theSenate Veterans Affairs Committee. He fell out with PresidentLyndon Johnson when he became one of the Vietnam War's first opponents.

Hartke was elected to the Senate in1958 at age 39, defeating RepublicanGovernorHarold Handley. He became known as a hard-working, liberal Democrat with a strong relationship withSenate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. In his first term, Hartke was a member of the Finance and Commerce committees, lobbied for programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and supported theCivil Rights Act of 1964.

Hartke was reelected overstate Senator Russell Bontrager in1964, becoming only the third Indiana Democrat, after Benjamin Franklin Shively in 1914 and Frederick Van Nuys in 1938, to be popularly elected to a second Senate term. He helped create student loan programs and new veterans' benefits during his second term. He helped to establishAmtrak as chair of the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation.

After his sister, Ruth E. Hartke, was killed in a head-on crash in Ohio in 1964 while working his campaign, Hartke used his chairmanship of Commerce Transportation Subcommittee to require that automakers equip cars with seat belts and other safety equipment. He also was instrumental in creating theInternational Executive Service Corps, an organization modeled after the Peace Corps that sent retired U.S. businessmen to poor countries to help turn small businesses into larger ones.

Hartke was credited with important roles in passing measures that created or supported student loan programs, veterans' benefits, and theHead Start Program. He introduced a bill to create the George Washington Peace Academy and aDepartment of Peace. The concept became known as the first cornerstone for the campaign that led to the creation of theU.S. Institute of Peace.

Hartke was praised for winning passage of a measure making kidney dialysis more widely available. A statement entered into theCongressional Record in honor of his 80th birthday credited the measure with saving 500,000 lives.

His opposition to the Vietnam War was not popular in Indiana. In1970, after a very bitter and tight race against Republican CongressmanRichard L. Roudebush and a ballot recount, Hartke won a third term by 4,283 votes. In 1972, he was an unsuccessful candidate for theDemocratic Party'spresidential nomination against SenatorsEdmund Muskie andGeorge McGovern. In1976, after narrowly surviving a primary challenge by freshman Eighth District CongressmanPhilip Hayes, Hartke lost the general Senate election toIndianapolis MayorRichard Lugar in a landslide. UntilJoe Donnelly was elected in 2012, Hartke was the most recent Indiana Democrat, aside from a member of the Bayh family, to be elected to and serve in the Senate.

In 1994, Hartke pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election fraud charge in southeastern Indiana'sDearborn County.^[3] During the previous November's general election, a Kentucky-based casino firm had employed him as a consultant to support it during a casino-legalization referendum.^[4]

Hartke wrote three books—The American Crisis in Vietnam,You and Your Senator,^[5] andInside the New Frontier, the last co-authored with John M. Redding.

Hartke and his wife, Martha, had seven children.^[5] Their daughter Anita Hartke was the 2008 Democratic nominee for theUnited States House of Representatives from the7th congressional district of Virginia. She lost to theRepublican incumbent,Eric Cantor.

Hartke died at a hospital inFairfax, Virginia on July 27, 2003, aged 84.^[5]

In 2009, Hartke received the JFK Club of Vanderburgh County's John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Posthumous Award, "to carry forward the legacy and principles of President John F. Kennedy by supporting legislation and government officials or candidates that promote social justice and equality, in order to build a better community and society for all."

• "Rupert Vance Hartke". Arlington National Cemetery. 5 November 2022.
• Myrna Oliver (July 29, 2003)."Vance Hartke, 84; Indiana Senator Opposed Johnson on Vietnam".Los Angeles Times.Archived from the original on July 20, 2023. RetrievedAugust 13, 2025.
• Wolfgang Saxon (July 29, 2003)."Vance Hartke, Antiwar Senator of Indiana, Dies at 84".New York Times. RetrievedAugust 13, 2025.
• Olson, James Stuart (1999).Historical Dictionary of the 1960s. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 222.ISBN 978-0-313-29271-2.
• "USIP Timeline". United States Institute of Peace. Archived fromthe original on April 16, 2013.
• "Honoring the Life of Senator Vance Hartke"(PDF). Congressional Record, Senate. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 2011-08-10. Retrieved2010-02-22.
• Rettig, Richard A. (1976)."The Policy Debate on Patient Care Financing for Victims of End-Stage Renal Disease".Law and Contemporary Problems.40 (4). Richard A. Rettig, Duke University:196–230.doi:10.2307/1191314.JSTOR 1191314.PMID 11661595.
• "USIP Timeline". United States Institute of Peace. Archived fromthe original on April 16, 2013.
• "Life in Legacy 2003". Life in Legacy.

• United States Congress."Vance Hartke (id: H000297)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
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