STROM THURMOND : A Life in Full (Special Series , Part 3) The Campaign of my Life, 1996
Campaign 1996
For me it was the campaign of my lifetime. No race ever equaled the life altering impact of that year in my life. This was the year that I got to see up-close two of the political figures I most admired, Senator Bob Dole of Kansas and Strom Thurmond. The South Carolina Presidential Primary turned out to be the most important of all the primaries that year as Bob Dole was in a fight for his political Presidential survival and two Governors and Strom Thurmond stepped in to help him win it.
Then that same organization stepped up to insure that Strom Thurmond was re-elected to a 8th term. I was a tiny little cog as a volunteer and College Republican Chairman at Lander University in Greenwood S.C. and after graduating I helped out in my hometown of Myrtle Beach. I had been around politics all my life but it was 1996 that I got to be right there, for the first time, at the feet of two of the political figures I most admired as they campaigned across South Carolina, first in the upstate for Dole and then for Thurmond in the Low Country.
In the Thurmond race there really was only one issue and that was the Senator's age. National publications were trying to cast doubt on the Senator's mental fitness ( a totally bogus charge, I was there and the man was amazing) , the Democrats from Washington D.C. had recruited a billionaire member of the Springs Mills family, a huge textile company, in Elliot Close, and finally there had begun an influx of new residents into the state that were not as familiar with Thurmond's actual record of constituent service as the native Carolinians had been. If ever Senator Thurmond appeared to be vulnerable in his 74 year career, this was it.
But D.C. just did not know S.C. as well as it thought it did.
Thurmond put together an incredible team to shore up his political defenses. He had two governors, Carroll Campbell and David Beasley working on his behalf, arguably one of the best Republican Party Chairmen in the nation in Henry McMaster working for him, and three legendary political campaign people working on his behalf in Manager Tony Denny, and consultants Cindy Carter Thompson and a very young Robert Cahaly (The Trafalgar Group) all on the team. Not only that, he had the State's Lieutenant Governor Bob Peeler and its Speaker of the House David Wilkins on Board and Myrtle Beach's famous State Representative Mark Kelly all working overtime to insure Thurmond won.
And let's not forget, the two day - 10 county nonstop bus trip across the state, known as "The Thurmondator Bus Tour" where Strom Thurmond himself barnstormed the state, courthouse to courthouse, festival to festival, just like a campaign of old.
Elliot Close did not know what hit him.
This episode is that story and you will be able to relive as much of it as I was able to save.
By the time this show is over you will be quoting the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, "I feel Good!!!" As Mr. Brown makes an appearance to help Senator Thurmond celebrate this final election victory to capstone his incredible life and career.
** I wish to acknowledge the fine work of WIS TV 10, SC ETV, and CNN for their news broadcasts that we used in putting these three podcasts together, much of which was aired over a three day period when the senator passed away.
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