Doug Harlan

Douglas Sloan Harlan, known as Doug Harlan (1943 – November 8, 2008), was an attorney, Republican political consultan], journalist, scholar, educator, and local official from San Antonio, Texas.

Douglas Sloan Harlan (Texas political consultant, pundit, and educator)
Born	1943 Place of birth missing
Political Party	Republican

Education

Harlan graduated in 1964 from Rice University in Houston and received a master's degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He then procured a Ph.D. in political science in 1968 from the University of Texas at Austin. UT published his dissertation Party and Campaign in a Congressional Election: A Case Study of Reciprocal Dependency. In 1974, he received a law degree from the UT School of Law.

Career

Harlan was an early supporter of U.S. Senator John Tower, whom he worked successfully to reelect in 1966. Tower began his nearly 24-year Senate tenure as a conservative but had become a Moderate Republican in his last term. That same year, Harlan campaigned for Republican D. C. Norwood of Wichita Falls in Texas's 13th congressional district, but the incumbent Democrat Graham B. Purcell, Jr., won once more. In 1970, Harlan worked in the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign waged by Tower's preferred candidate, Republican Paul Eggers of Dallas against the incumbent Democrat Preston Smith of Lubbock. In 1972 and 1974, Harlan waged his own unsuccessful races for Texas's 21st congressional district]] seat in the United States House of Representatives. He polled 43 percent in the 1972 race against Democrat Ovie Clark Fisher of Junction in Kimble County. Paul Burka of Texas Monthly said that Harlan's race against Fisher demonstrated that the rural conservative Democrats could not sustain their power.

After he underwent heart surgery, Fisher retired after fifteen terms in 1974. The Democrats nominated Bob Krueger as the successor candidate. Coincidentally, Krueger had also obtained a master's degree from Duke and had been on the English language faculty there before he returned to New Braunfels to run for Congress. Krueger set a record for spending in a congressional race, but Harlan polled just over 45 percent of the ballots cast. As in 1972, Harlan could not raise the funds required for the campaign; so he placed volunteers who waved placards at passing motorists in order to publicize his candidacy. Harlan is considered a transitional figure in the political move of Texas from the Democrats to the Republicans, a process which had taken place by the beginning of the 21st century

Harlan donated $1.1 million to establish at Rice University the Douglas S. Harlan Program in State Elections, Campaigns and Politics. The program coordinates scholars from various disciplines. Its components include an archives collection, research, and outreach. Another source claims that the Harlan contribution to the program was $2.2 million.