Estes Kefauver had quite nearly managed the impossible by getting himself elected to the United States Senate in 1948.  Kefauver took advantage of E. H. Crump’s mistake in refusing to back Senator Tom Stewart for reelection. The state of the national Democratic Party...

By Ray Hill   Congressman Estes Kefauver had seriously contemplated challenging Senator Kenneth D. McKellar in 1946.  After exploring the possibility of running against McKellar, Kefauver decided the seventy-seven year old incumbent was still too strong to beat. ...

By Ray Hill By 1946 Estes Kefauver had been in Congress for seven years and was contemplating a race against Tennessee’s most powerful political figure, United States Senator Kenneth D. McKellar.  Although little known outside his own Congressional district, Kefauver...

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...