Roy C. Strickland
| Roy Clifton Strickland | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Born | September 20, 1942 Vicksburg, Warren County Mississippi, USA | ||
| Died | September 22, 2010 (aged 68) The Woodlands Montgomery County, Texas | ||
| Political Party | Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives for the since disbanded Louisiana 8th congressional district, 1972 | ||
| Spouse | Divorced from Connie Wright and from three other women in Mississippi and Louisiana Daughter: | ||
| Religion | Episcopalian and Roman Catholic | ||
Roy Clifton Strickland (September 20, 1942 – September 22, 2010) was a businessman in The Woodlands, Texas, north of Houston, who was a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in the state of Louisiana.in 1972, Strickland challenged the Democrat Gillis Long, a part of the Long political dynasty, for the United States House of Representatives. More than a decade later, he ran unsuccessfully for local office as an official write-in candidate in Texas.
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Background
Strickland was born in Vicksburg in Warren County in western Mississippi, to Clyde Cotton Strickland and the former Erna Voss.[1]
Strickland graduated in 1960 from Jet High School in Warren County, Mississippi and enlisted in the United States Navy, having served for six years. He briefly attended college at what became the University of New Orleans. From 1968 to 1978, he was involved in selling insurance door-to-door, working for trucking companies, including Mississippi Fast Freight, Matlach, and Younger Brothers, in Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas, having progressed upward from entry-level positions. Decades later, he began selling real estate in Texas.
Political activities
Running for the U.S. House, 1972
In 1972, when he was twenty-nine and residing in Gonzales in Ascension Parish south of Baton Rouge, Strickland ran as a Republican for the open seat in Louisiana's 8th congressional district. Former U.S. Representative Gillis Long was the Democratic nominee, who defeated four opponents in the closed primary election held on August 19. His strongest intra-party rival had been state Representative Armand Brinkhaus of Sunset in St. Landry Parish and state Senator J. E. Jumonville, Jr. of Ventress in Pointe Coupee Parish.[2] Long then faced Strickland and a second opponent in the general election, Dr. Samuel R. Abramson (1917–1997), then a surgeon from Marksville in Avoyelles Parish, and later a Lafayette resident and the choice of George Wallace's former American Independent Party, considered part of the "Radical Right."
The demographics made the race impossible for either challenger. Governor Edwin Edwards and the Democratic state legislature had redrawn the Eighth District in 1971 to create territory friendly to Long, who had represented the district in the mid 1960s until unseated by his third cousin, Speedy Long, who did not seek a fifth term after the district was altered, and Edwards wanted to repay Gillis Long for his support of Edwards in the 1971 Democratic runoff primary against state Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr., of Shreveport, who in November 1972 was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Strickland obtained support from a number of Republicans in the district, including Mayor Ed Karst of Alexandria, a recent convert to the party. Karst hosted Strickland in his home when the congressional candidate came to Alexandria to campaign. Strickland credited the Republican state chairman James H. Boyce of Baton Rouge as "the source of funding for my campaign, he was the financial heartbeat for many of the candidates; without him, a lot of us would have never gotten off the ground."[3]
Ultimately, the returns spoke clearly: Long won convincingly with 72,607 votes; Abramson, 17,844; and Strickland placed third with 15,517.[4] In this same election on November 7, 1972, the Republican David C. Treen became the first Republican in 20th century Louisiana history to win a seat in Congress. Treen won Louisiana's 3rd congressional district in which the incumbent Democrat Patrick T. Caffery, retired after two terms.
Texas county commissioner candidacy
Strickland continued his Republican political activities in Montgomery County, Texas. After the suicide of one of the four county commissioners in the middle 1980s, Strickland sought the Republican nomination from a committee organized to select a replacement. When the committee chose someone else, who was part of the GOP hierarchy, Strickland ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate in the general election. Strickland otherwise remained affiliated with the Republican Party.
Business entrepreneur
Strickland was transferred in 1977 to the Houston area by his employer, Younger Brothers Trucking Co. He later co-founded a construction firm and helped to run a Tennessee-based transportation company. In 1990, Strickland formed what became CANUSAMEX Transportation, Inc., a firm twice named the "Fastest Growing In Houston." In 2000, it was ranked by Inc. Magazine as the 133rd fastest growing company in the United States. CANUSAMEX was the acronym of Canada/USA/Mexico. The company failed after September 11, 2001, Strickland explained, because it could not comply with new government regulations which stemmed from the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. The company ceased operations in the summer of 2002. Strickland returned to his hometown of Vicksburg in August 2002 and worked with family members to negotiate the merger, acquisition, and consolidation of twelve Internet Service Providers which were sold to Xfone early in 2005.[5]
In the fall of 2004, Strickland was back in The Woodlands with a real estate license. He died in The Woodlands two days after his 68th birthday. He is interred at Forest Park The Woodlands Cemetery.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Roy C. Strickland. yourhoustonnews.com (September 23, 2010). Retrieved on February 7, 2011; no longer on-line.
- ↑ Louisiana District 8 - D Primary. ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved on May 23, 2014.
- ↑ Statement of Roy C. Strickland, 2006.
- ↑ LA District 8. ourcampaigns.com. Retrieved on May 23, 2014.
- ↑ Mississippi Business Journal; date missing; article no longer available.
