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'''Eugene Joseph McCarthy''' (March 29, 1916 – December 10, 2005) was a liberal U.S. Senator from [[Minnesota]] who ran for the [[Democratic Party]] presidential nomination in 1968 and 1972.  He was sometimes considered more a poet than a politician and frustrated his hyperearnest supporters with his nonchalance.

==1968 election==
McCarthy polled 42 percent of the ballots in the 1968 [[New Hampshire]] primary, compared to 49 percent polled by [[U.S. President]] [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. McCarthy's showing prompted his senatorial colleague [[Robert F. Kennedy]] of [[New York]] to enter the race, and soon Johnson decided against seeking a second full term.  McCarthy won the primaries in [[Wisconsin]] and [[Oregon]] but Robert Kennedy became the party favorite to win the nomination after defeating McCarthy in [[Nebraska]] and [[California]].  That very night Kennedy was assassinated in [[Los Angeles]].  

The party favorite for the nomination then defaulted to Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]], McCarthy's former senatorial colleague from Minnesota. Humphrey, with the liberal [[Edmund Muskie]] of [[Maine]] as his running mate, were nominated at the party convention in [[Chicago]] which was infamous for leftist student agitators rioting in the streets.

In 1972, McCarthy again unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination but ran poorly. Primary voters and then the party delegates chose Senator [[George McGovern]] of [[South Dakota]]. In 1976, McCarthy ran as an [[Independent]] in the [[general election]] for President, but voters instead elected his fellow Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] of [[Georgia]]. In 1980, McCarthy refused to support Carter for reelection and surprisingly endorsed [[Republican]] [[Ronald Reagan]], having said that "macromanager" Reagan had "a better perception" of the office of president than did the "micromanager" Carter.

==Conservative causes==

McCarthy did not seek reelection to the Senate in 1970. In time, he became involved in some [[conservative]] alliances and causes but overall remained a liberal. In addition to his support for Reagan in 1980, he wrote the introduction to the book '''A New Beginning'' that year by [[Libertarian Party]] nominee [[Ed Clark]]. McCarthy supported [[Official English]] and 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 again sought the Democratic presidential nomination for President, but was excluded from the debates by the party machinery and did poorly at the polls. The voters nominated [[Bill Clinton]] of [[Arkansas]].  In 1996 and 2000, McCarthy supported [[Green Party]] nominee [[Ralph Nader]] for President and joined protests demanding Nader's 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 the liberal cause known as [[political correctness]].

He is not to be confused with U.S. Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]], a Republican from the neighboring state of Wisconsin, who exposed communist subversion in the U.S. government during the 1950s..

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[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party]]
[[Category:Catholic Politicians]]
[[Category:Minnesota]]