By Ray Hill Congressman Sam D. McReynolds had first been elected in 1922 and had been reelected consistently ever since.  McReynolds had been highly popular in Tennessee’s Third Congressional district and he had routinely easily turned back every challenger inside the...

By Ray Hill My grandmother was from Madisonville, Tennessee and I recall very well her traveling from her home in Maryville to attend the funeral of Senator Estes Kefauver in August of 1963. She retained a fondness for Senator Kefauver throughout her life and never...

By Ray Hill For years, Ben W. Hooper was the most successful Republican politician in the state of Tennessee, if the measure was the ability to win a statewide election.  A fiery and dynamic speaker, Hooper was a successful lawyer, yet he had overcome serious...

By Ray Hill Having won a second six-year term in 1958 over serious opposition, Albert Gore returned to the Senate.  Although he had won a smashing reelection victory against former Governor Prentice Cooper, Gore believed the campaign left him with political scars that...

By Ray Hill Albert Gore returned to Washington, D. C. in January of 1953 as a member of the United States Senate after having served fourteen years as a Member of Congress.  Gore arrived in the Senate with the reputation of  being a giant-killer, having defeated...

  By Ray Hill Albert Gore’s Congressional district had been eliminated in the redistricting following the 1950 election. Gore was unconcerned as he had something bigger in mind; he was determined to run for the United States Senate seat held by Kenneth D....

By Ray Hill Congressman Albert Gore’s independent streak had not set well with President Franklin Roosevelt. FDR was not one to value independence in a legislator and tended to have a vindictive streak. As World War II raged on, there were rumblings that Gore would...