Description: Up for auction "Wyoming Senator" Gale W. McGee Hand Signed TLS Dated 1959. ES-4354 Gale William McGee (March 17, 1915 – April 9, 1992) was a United States Senator of the Democratic Party, and United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS). He represented Wyoming in the United States Senate from 1959 until 1977. To date, he remains the last Democrat to have represented Wyoming in the U.S. Senate. McGee was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, on March 17, 1915. He attended public schools, and had planned to study law in college, but was forced by the Great Depression to attend the State Teachers College in Wayne, Nebraska, instead. He graduated from the Teachers College in 1936, and worked as a high school teacher while studying for a master's degree in history at the University of Colorado. He continued as a college instructor at Nebraska Wesleyan University, Iowa State College, and Notre Dame. In 1946 McGee received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Chicago. Active in Democratic Party politics, McGee was asked to run for the United States Congress in 1950, but declined, saying he wanted to get more in touch with Wyoming and its people. In 1955–56 he took a leave of absence from the university to work as top aide to Wyoming Democratic Senator Joseph C. O'Mahoney. In 1958 McGee left the university to make his bid for the U.S. Senate, challenging incumbent Frank A. Barrett. He ran on a program of youth and new ideas. The race between McGee and Barrett attracted the attention of national party leaders on both sides. Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, Senator John F. Kennedy, Senator Wayne Morse of Oregon, Senator-elect Edmund Muskie of Maine, Congressman Joseph M. Montoya of New Mexico, and former President Harry S. Truman came to the state to support McGee, whose campaign slogan was "McGee for Me!". Lyndon Johnson pledged that, if Wyoming sent McGee to Washington, he would appoint him to the prestigious Appropriations Committee[ Eleanor Roosevelt even conducted a national fund-raising drive for him.[3] Barrett received assistance from national leaders as well, including Vice President Richard Nixon. McGee ultimately defeated Barrett by a margin of 1,913 votes out of a total of 116,230 votes cast in the election. He won the majority of the votes in seven of the 23 counties. These were the southern "Union Pacific" ountiesAlbany, Carbon, Laramie, Sweetwater, Uinta) Platte, just north of Cheyenne, and Sheridan in the north. McGee won the endorsement of the Wyoming AFL-CIO Committee on Political Education (COPE) and the labor vote played an important part in the election. He became a member of the Democratic class of 1958, which was elected in the middle of President Eisenhower's second term. After his victory McGee was appointed to the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee and Senate Majority Leader Johnson kept his promise and appointed him to the prestigious Appropriations Committee. McGee and his fellow Senate freshmen, Thomas J. Dodd and Robert C. Byrd, were the first freshmen ever to receive such an appointment.
Price: 39.99 USD
Location: Fort Lauderdale, Florida
End Time: 2024-11-15T16:06:29.000Z
Shipping Cost: 0 USD
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Return shipping will be paid by: Buyer
All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
Item must be returned within: 14 Days
Refund will be given as: Money back or replacement (buyer's choice)
Industry: Congressional
Signed: Yes
Original/Reproduction: Original
