By Ray Hill From 1930 until 1964, the Democratic Party reigned supreme in Tennessee. Republicans had only occasionally been able to elect a governor; the last was Alfred A. Taylor in 1920. That year had been something of a high watermark for the GOP. Republicans had...

By Ray Hill It seems odd to be writing about my dear little friend Mackie in this column, but God help me, he belongs to the past now. Evidently there really is such a thing as love at first sight.  The very first time I laid eyes on a little Scottish terrier puppy 12...

By Ray Hill Both of Tennessee’s seats in the United States Senate were up for election in 1964, just as they had been thirty years earlier in 1934. Thirty years later, Tennesseans would go to the polls to elect two U. S. senators yet again in 1994. Senator Estes...

The 1964 Senate Races In Tennessee  By Ray Hill Lyndon Baines Johnson was a remarkably able politician.  The intricacies of Johnson’s complicated personality have likely best been examined in Robert Caro’s splendid multi-volume biography of Johnson.  Much of Johnson’s...

By Ray Hill Edith Irene Bailey Baker is the only woman to represent Tennessee’s Second Congressional District in the U. S. House of Representatives.  For those folks who recall Irene Baker today, it is usually because she was the step-mother of U. S. Senator Howard...

By Ray Hill   I imagine few, if any, readers remember George Grider of Memphis.  Grider served one term in Congress from Shelby County, yet he deserves to be remembered due to the fact he defeated the last vestige of the old Crump machine to get to Congress. ...

By Ray Hill When the Founding Fathers came up with the House of Representatives as a legislative instrument meant to reflect the will of the people, they succeeded perhaps better than they could possibly have known.  The body has endured remarkably well since the...

By Ray Hill July of 1966 was hot and humid in Tennessee that year. Two veteran campaigners, Governor Frank Clement and Senator Ross Bass, were stumping the state for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate. Both campaigned at a furious pace. The...

By Ray Hill Pulaski Congressman Ross Bass had defeated Governor Frank Clement for the Democratic nomination to succeed the late Senator Estes Kefauver.  Bass faced Republican Howard Baker in the general election.  It was the first time Frank Clement had lost an...

By Ray Hill Frank Clement was the first incumbent governor in Tennessee to bid for the United States Senate since Tom C. Rye in 1918.  The unexpected death of Senator Estes Kefauver on August 10, 1963 necessitated a special election in 1964.  For the second time in...