Eugene McCarthy
From Conservapedia
Eugene McCarthy (March 29, 1916 – December 10, 2005) was a liberal U.S. Senator from Minnesota who ran for the Democratic Party nominee for President in 1968.
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1968 election
He did not win the New Hampshire primary but made a very strong showing (42% McCarthy to 49% Johnson) against incumbent liberal President Lyndon B. Johnson, prompting Johnson to go onto national television to announce he was dropping out of the race. Robert Kennedy then entered the race. McCarthy won the primaries in Wisconsin and Oregon but Robert Kennedy became the party favorite to win the nomination, until Kennedy's assassination. The party favorite for the nomination then defaulted to Hubert Humphrey, who ultimately won the nomination at the party convention in Chicago which was infamous for leftist student agitators rioting in the Chicago streets during the convention.
Other elections
Eugene McCarthy ran for President again in 1972 (in the Democratic primary); 1976 (as an independent); 1988 (as an independent); and 1992 (in the Democratic primary). He did poorly in all those races.
He left the U.S. Senate in 1971.
Conservative causes
Following his retirement from the Senate and his quixotic 1976 run for the White House as an independent, Eugene McCarthy began a series of some conservative alliances and causes. This does not mean he had become a conservative by any stretch, as he remained a liberal for the most part during this time. Most notably: in the 1980 election, McCarthy endorsed Ronald Reagan for President. He also wrote the introduction to the book A New Beginning by 1980 Libertarian Party nominee Ed Clark, and involved himself in the Official English group U.S. English and in the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which seeks to cut both legal and illegal immigration into the United States.
Liberal causes
In 1992, Eugene McCarthy re-entered the Democratic Party and sought the Democratic nomination for President, but was excluded from the debates by the party machinery and did poorly at the polls. In 1996 and 2000, he supported Green Party nominee Ralph Nader for President and joined protests demanding his inclusion in the debates. He also co-authored a book advocating a shorter workweek with Minnesota activist William McGaughey (later a Reform Party candidate who campaigned for the U.S. Senate on a platform of opposition to political correctness.)
He is not to be confused with U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, of the neighboring state of Wisconsin.
