Thomas Kuchel

{{Infobox officeholder |name=Thomas Henry Kuchel |image=Thomas Kuchel of CA.jpg |office=United States Senator for California |term_star=January 2, 1953 |term_end=January 3, 1969 |predecessor=Richard Nixon |successor=Alan Cranston |office2=Senate Minority Whip |term_start2=January 3, 1959 |term_end2=January 3, 1969 |predecessor2=Everett Dirksen |successor2=Hugh Scott |office3=California State Controller |governor3=Earl Warren |term_start3=February 11, 1946 |term_end3=January 2, 1953 |predecessor3=Harry B. Riley |successor3=Robert C. Kirkwood |office4=California State Assemblyman |term_start4=1937 |term_end4=1941 |predecessor4=Edward Craig |successor4=Sam L. Collins |birth_date=August 15, 1910 |birth_place=Anaheim, Orange County, California |death_date=November 21, 1994 (aged 84) |death_place=Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California |party=Republican |spouse=Betty Mellenthin Kuchel (married 1942-1994, his death) |children=One child |alma_mater=University of Southern California (BA, LLB) |branch=[[United States Navy}} |unit=Navy Reserve |battles=World War II }} Thomas Henry Kuchel (pronounced KEY KULL) (August 15, 1910 – November 21, 1994), was an attorney and a Moderate Republican United States Senator from his native California. He succeeded to the Senate when Richard M. Nixon became Vice President of the United States on January 20, 1953. From 1959 to 1969, he was the Senate Minority Whip in which capacity he was a floor manager of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He also pushed for the ratification of the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constituion, which ended poll taxes in federal elections. He worked in 1967 to confirm his fellow liberal, the African-American Thurgood Marshall, to the United States Supreme Court. While running for reelection, he did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

Kuchel was born in Anaheim in Orange County, the home of Disneyland. His father, Henry, was a newspaper editor and the former Letitia Bailey. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the [[University of Southern California. In 1937, he was elected to the California Assembly, a post he filled for a single term until 1941. He was the California state controller from 1946 until he entered the Senate in 1953. He became controller in 1946 under his mentor, Governor Earl Warren and left the post upon his election to the Senate.

In his bid for a third full term, Kuchel lost the Republican primary to conservative Maxwell Lewis "Max" Rafferty, Jr. (1917-1982), the then California superintendent of public instruction. Rafferty, however, was defeated by the staunchly liberal Alan Cranston, who like Kuchel was a former controller.

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