Lynn Lowe
Encyclopedia
Aylmer Lynn Lowe, known as A. Lynn Lowe (March 6, 1936 – August 14, 2010), was a farmer
and politician
from Garland
in Miller County in southwestern Arkansas
, who was a major figure in the Arkansas Republican Party. He was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1978 against the Democrat
Bill Clinton
, served as state party chairman from 1974–1980, and was the GOP
candidate in Arkansas's 4th congressional district
in 1966, having been defeated by the Democrat David Hampton Pryor
, then a state representative
and a future governor and U.S. Senator, originally from Camden
in Ouachita County in south Arkansas.
Lowe was born in Texarkana
to Jesse Luther Lowe, Sr. (1890–1967), and the former Ruth McKinley (1894–1987), originally from Waldo
in Nevada County in southern Arkansas. He graduated from Garland High School and attended Southern Arkansas University
in Magnolia
for two years before he received in 1959 his Bachelor of Science
degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He farmed his entire life near the Red River and for a time also raised cattle
. Lowe was married to the former Nedra Jean Bledsoe, originally from Boyce
in northern Rapides Parish
north of Alexandria
in central Louisiana. The Bledsoes relocated to Miller County, where Jena's father operated a cotton gin
. Lynn and Jean Lowe have a son, Michael Lynn Lowe (born 1959), also a farmer, and wife, Diana; two daughters, Ruth Evelyn Lowe of Garland City and Martha Lowe Robertson and husband, Chris, of Little Rock
, and three grandchildren. Also Lynn Lowe truly loved his grandchild Warren Patrick Robertson. Warren loved his Papa as well. Lynn Lowe had a surviving brother Robert McKinley Lowe of Weems
, Virginia, and two sisters Jean Davis of Mesa
, Arizona
, and Dot Fisher of Ames
, Iowa
. He was predeceased by a brother, Jesse Luther Lowe, Jr. Lowe was long active in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
in Texarkana, Texas
.
Kenneth Jones, who unsuccessfully challenged the reelection of U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright
. Lowe was also the Arkansas Republican state treasurer from 1964-1966. In 1966, he ran for the U.S. House seat when the incumbent
Oren Harris
of El Dorado
resigned in February to accept appointment from U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
and confirmation by the U.S. Senate as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas, based in Fort Smith
. A special election was held simultaneously with the regular 1966 general election to fill the few weeks left in Harris' unexpired term. The seat was vacant from February to November.
Pryor first won a hard-fought Democratic primary against the Texarkana attorney Richard S. Arnold
, then a son-in-law of the media owner Walter E. Hussman, Sr.
. In the general election, Pryor carried all twenty counties, including Lowe's Miller County, which gave the Republican only 46.8 percent though it had supported Republican gubernatorial nominee Winthrop Rockefeller
against the Democrat James D. Johnson
. Pryor received 86,887 votes (65 percent) to Lowe's 46,804 (35 percent). Lowe ran as a conservative and refused to deny or confirm reports that he had formerly belonged to the John Birch Society
. Lowe had told voters that they could repudiate President Johnson in 1966, when Johnson's name was not on the ballot, by supporting the Republican congressional campaign. He urged "local determination of local problems", and Pryor stressed his record as one of the reformers known as the "Young Turks" from the Arkansas House of Representatives
.
to the United States Constitution
, which was never ratified by the Arkansas legislature. He declared the matter a "dead issue" in Arkansas though ratification
was still being sought on the national level by the administration of President Jimmy Carter
.
Lowe found few issues on which to challenge Clinton until the Democrat announced his opposition to a referendum
to remove the state sales tax on groceries and prescription drugs. Clinton determined that the state could not afford to lose the $60 million then procured from the sales tax. Lowe noted a $40 million state surplus and urged repeal of the taxes. Not only did Clinton defeat Lowe, but the removal of the sales taxes failed, 55-45 percent.
With his election a foregone conclusion, Clinton called the campaign against Lowe "uneventful except for the press conference on the steps of the Capitol in which his campaign accused me of being a draft dodger." Lowe's charge would be raised again nearly fourteen years later in the 1992 presidential primary campaign. The Arkadelphia Southern Standard newspaper in Arkadelphia
claimed that Clinton could hardly lose "unless he stumbles badly or is caught molesting a nun in the process of robbing the church widows’ and orphans’ funds."U.S. News and World Report said that no state in the U.S. South in 1978 was "tougher to crack for the Republicans than Arkansas, and it's going to stay that way." Clinton hence became at thirty-two the youngest person elected governor in the United States since Harold E. Stassen won in Minnesota
in 1938 at the age of thirty-one. He was termed "a living monument to the god 'Charisma'"
Lowe received 195,550 votes (36.6 percent) and won six counties: Sebastian (Fort Smith, with 62.5 percent), Crawford (near Fort Smith with 55 percent), Boone
(Harrison
, with 54.9 percent), Polk (54.4 percent), Van Buren (54.1 percent), and his own Miller (53.6 percent). He won 49.8 percent in Franklin, also near Fort Smith and the home base of then U.S. Senator Dale L. Bumpers. Clinton prevailed with 338,684 votees (63.4 percent) and won the remaining sixty-nine counties. It was the best showing by a GOP nominee for governor since Winthrop Rockefeller's 1970 defeat. While Lowe lost to Clinton, Lowe's former congressional rival, outgoing Governor David Pryor, won a sweeping victory for the U.S. Senate over the Little Rock Republican William Thomas Kelly, Jr., a representative of his party's liberal wing.
U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt
, the first Arkansas Republican congressman since Reconstruction, was instrumental in helping his friend Lowe to win in Boone County. Hammerschmidt had also been party chairman for a time before and again after his congressional service. He also preceded Lowe as the party's national committeeman. Lowe was a Hammerschmidt donor from 1982-1988. He also contributed $1,000 to the Arkansas party organization after he left as chairman.
, the Saline County party chairman and a former aide to Governor Rockefeller, and Bob Scott of Little Rock, a moderate and former Rockefeller associate. Though considered a conservative, Lowe was friendly with Vice President
Nelson A. Rockefeller, Winthrop Rockefeller's older brother who had been nominated to fill the second slot by President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., upon Ford's accession to the presidency after the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. Lowe said that Nelson Rockefeller was popular among Arkansas Republicans because of "the feelings for his brother." Yet, Lowe said that a more conservative running mate might be needed for Ford in 1976, having foreshadowed the replacement of Nelson Rockefeller on the GOP ticket by Robert J. Dole of Kansas
.
Lowe described Winthrop Rockefeller as "a very unusual guy with the best interest of Arkansas and its people at heart. If he made a mistake, it was not because he wanted to do so." Lowe said that his early years as chairman came at a time when the Arkansas GOP was "about as flat on our back as a party could be. By 1980, we had come from one state legislator to a governor, Frank D. White
, and two members of the U.S. House", John Paul Hammerschmidt and Edwin R. Bethune.
Lowe served three two-year terms as chairman, having been succeeded in June 1980 by the vice chairman who became the interim chairman, Jeraldine D. "Jeri" Pruden, of Hope, the seat of Hempstead County in south Arkansas and the birthplace of Bill Clinton. In December 1980, Harlan Holleman
was elected and served as chairman until his death in March 1982. Like Lowe, Holleman was also a former candidate for the U.S. Congress.
On August 10, 1975, Lowe and then State Representative Carolyn Pollan
of Fort Smith hosted U.S. President Ford, who attended a reception of some thirty Arkansas Republican leaders held at the Sheraton Inn in Fort Smith. Earlier in the day, Ford had toured Fort Chaffee
, accompanied by Senator John L. McClellan and other Democratic members of the Arkansas congressional delegation. Ford's stops included the Vietnam Refugee Resettlement Center there.
Lowe was sergeant at arms at the 1980 Republican National Convention
in Detroit
. The Arkansas delegation included Ada Mills
of Clarksville
, who had received national attention for having been the only delegate in the country initially committed to former Governor
John B. Connally, Jr., for the presidential nomination that year. As state party chairman, Lowe had been technically neutral at the convention, but Lowe and the entire Arkansas delegation routinely voted to nominate Ronald W. Reagan, who would then tap George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas
as his vice-presidential
choice.
After his three terms as party chairman, Lowe served from 1980-1988 as the Arkansas Republican national committeeman. When Bill Clinton returned in 1982 for a second nonconsecutive two-year term as governor, his former rival Lowe told the GOP executive committee, meeting in Little Rock, that he had observed "the exchange of paper money" at a polling precinct in Texarkana eleven days earlier. Lowe said that he feared the "ugly monster" of corrupt election practices was returning to Arkansas and would "play havoc" with future Republican opportunities. He declined to answer reporters' questions about instances of specific fraud in state politics.
In 2000, Lowe was a donor to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush
, successful in a close electoral vote over Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, Jr.
Lowe was the board chairman of the Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative Commission in Texarkana. He was a participant in the federal farm program, having received $108,057 in subsidies
in 2002. From 1995-2006, Lowe received $464,806 in subsidies.
Lowe died at the age of seventy-four at his home in Garland, Arkansas. A memorial service was held on August 21, 2010, at the First Lutheran Church of Texarkana, Texas, with the Reverend Berry Kolb officiating. Lowe was interred on his farm.
Lowe's death come one month after the passing of Leon Griffith
, the 1976 GOP gubernatorial nominee, who was overwhelmed in that heavily Democratic year by Governor David H. Pryor, who had defeated Lowe for Congress in 1966.
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
and politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
from Garland
Garland, Arkansas
Garland is a town in Miller County, Arkansas, United States. It is part of the Texarkana, Texas - Texarkana, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 352 at the 2000 census.Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn was born in Garland.A...
in Miller County in southwestern Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
, who was a major figure in the Arkansas Republican Party. He was the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1978 against the Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
, served as state party chairman from 1974–1980, and was the GOP
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
candidate in Arkansas's 4th congressional district
Arkansas's 4th congressional district
Arkansas's 4th congressional district is a congressional district located in the southern half of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Notable towns in the district include Camden, Hope, Hot Springs, Magnolia, Pine Bluff, and Texarkana....
in 1966, having been defeated by the Democrat David Hampton Pryor
David Pryor
David Hampton Pryor is a former Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senator from the State of Arkansas. Pryor also served as 39th Governor of Arkansas from 1975 to 1979 and was a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966...
, then a state representative
Arkansas House of Representatives
The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
and a future governor and U.S. Senator, originally from Camden
Camden, Arkansas
Camden is a city in and the county seat of Ouachita County in the southern part of the U.S. state of Arkansas. Long an area of American Indians villages, the French also made a permanent settlement here because of its advantageous location above the Ouachita River. According to 2007 Census...
in Ouachita County in south Arkansas.
Lowe was born in Texarkana
Texarkana, Arkansas
As of the census of 2000, there were 26,448 people, 10,384 households, and 7,040 families residing in the city. The population density was 830.5 people per square mile . There were 11,721 housing units at an average density of 368.1 per square mile...
to Jesse Luther Lowe, Sr. (1890–1967), and the former Ruth McKinley (1894–1987), originally from Waldo
Waldo, Arkansas
Waldo is a city in Columbia County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 1,594 at the 2000 census.Waldo celebrated its 120th year as a city in 2007. The small town was once a booming rail city on the Cotton Belt train route...
in Nevada County in southern Arkansas. He graduated from Garland High School and attended Southern Arkansas University
Southern Arkansas University
Southern Arkansas University is a public four-year institution located in Magnolia, the seat of Columbia County in Arkansas, United States, not far from the Louisiana state line.-Location:Southern Arkansas University is located in Magnolia, which, as of the census...
in Magnolia
Magnolia, Arkansas
Magnolia is a city in Columbia County, Arkansas, United States, that was founded in 1853. At the time of its incorporation in 1858, the city had a population of about 1,950. The city grew slowly as an agricultural and regional cotton market until the discovery of oil just east of the city in March,...
for two years before he received in 1959 his Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in agricultural engineering from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He farmed his entire life near the Red River and for a time also raised cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
. Lowe was married to the former Nedra Jean Bledsoe, originally from Boyce
Boyce, Louisiana
Boyce is a town in northern Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is part of the Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,190 at the 2000 census. The community is nearly 75 percent African American.-History:...
in northern Rapides Parish
Rapides Parish, Louisiana
-Military Installations:*Camp Beauregard *Esler Airfield *England Air Force Base *Camp Claiborne *Camp Livingston -Demographics:...
north of Alexandria
Alexandria, Louisiana
Alexandria is a city in and the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the principal city of the Alexandria metropolitan area which encompasses all of Rapides and Grant parishes....
in central Louisiana. The Bledsoes relocated to Miller County, where Jena's father operated a cotton gin
Cotton gin
A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, a job formerly performed painstakingly by hand...
. Lynn and Jean Lowe have a son, Michael Lynn Lowe (born 1959), also a farmer, and wife, Diana; two daughters, Ruth Evelyn Lowe of Garland City and Martha Lowe Robertson and husband, Chris, of Little Rock
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
, and three grandchildren. Also Lynn Lowe truly loved his grandchild Warren Patrick Robertson. Warren loved his Papa as well. Lynn Lowe had a surviving brother Robert McKinley Lowe of Weems
Weems, Virginia
Weems is an unincorporated community in Lancaster County in the U. S. state of Virginia. Weems shares the -438 Code With Irvington, Virginia....
, Virginia, and two sisters Jean Davis of Mesa
Mesa, Arizona
According to the 2010 Census, the racial composition of Mesa was as follows:* White: 77.1% * Hispanic or Latino : 26.54%* Black or African American: 3.5%* Two or more races: 3.4%* Native American: 2.4%...
, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and Dot Fisher of Ames
Ames, Iowa
Ames is a city located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa in Story County, and approximately north of Des Moines. The U.S. Census Bureau designates that Ames, Iowa metropolitan statistical area as encompassing all of Story County, and which, when combined with the Boone, Iowa...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. He was predeceased by a brother, Jesse Luther Lowe, Jr. Lowe was long active in the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod
The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod is a traditional, confessional Lutheran denomination in the United States. With 2.3 million members, it is both the eighth largest Protestant denomination and the second-largest Lutheran body in the U.S. after the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The Synod...
in Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana, Texas
Texarkana is a city in Bowie County, Texas, United States. It effectively functions as one half of a city which crosses a state line — the other half, the city of Texarkana, Arkansas, lies on the other side of State Line Avenue...
.
Congressional race
A lifelong Republican, Lowe served from 1962-1964 as the Fourth Congressional District Republican chairman. In 1962, he worked in the campaign of the Little Rock physicianPhysician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Kenneth Jones, who unsuccessfully challenged the reelection of U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright
J. William Fulbright
James William Fulbright was a United States Senator representing Arkansas from 1945 to 1975.Fulbright was a Southern Democrat and a staunch multilateralist who supported the creation of the United Nations and the longest serving chairman in the history of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...
. Lowe was also the Arkansas Republican state treasurer from 1964-1966. In 1966, he ran for the U.S. House seat when the incumbent
Incumbent
The incumbent, in politics, is the existing holder of a political office. This term is usually used in reference to elections, in which races can often be defined as being between an incumbent and non-incumbent. For example, in the 2004 United States presidential election, George W...
Oren Harris
Oren Harris
Oren Harris was a U.S. Representative and United States District Court Judge from Arkansas.-Background:Born in Belton, Arkansas, Harris attended public schools in Prescott, Arkansas....
of El Dorado
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado , a multi-cultural arts center: South Arkansas Arts Center , an award-winning renovated downtown, and numerous sporting, shopping, and dining opportunities. El Dorado is the population, cultural, and business center of the 7,300 mi² regional area...
resigned in February to accept appointment from U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
and confirmation by the U.S. Senate as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas, based in Fort Smith
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
. A special election was held simultaneously with the regular 1966 general election to fill the few weeks left in Harris' unexpired term. The seat was vacant from February to November.
Pryor first won a hard-fought Democratic primary against the Texarkana attorney Richard S. Arnold
Richard S. Arnold
Richard Sheppard Arnold was a judge of the U.S. District Court and then the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Two presidents, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton, considered naming Arnold to the United States Supreme Court...
, then a son-in-law of the media owner Walter E. Hussman, Sr.
Walter E. Hussman, Sr.
Walter Edward Hussman, Sr. , was a mass media magnate from Camden, Arkansas, whose holdings included six daily newspapers in Arkansas, several radio and television stations, including the NBC outlet KTAL-TV in Texarkana, Texas, and seventeen cable systems in four states.-Early years, education,...
. In the general election, Pryor carried all twenty counties, including Lowe's Miller County, which gave the Republican only 46.8 percent though it had supported Republican gubernatorial nominee Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller
Winthrop Rockefeller was a politician and philanthropist who served as the first Republican Governor of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He was a third-generation member of the Rockefeller family.-Early life:...
against the Democrat James D. Johnson
James D. Johnson
James Douglas Johnson, known as Justice Jim Johnson , was a former associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, a two-time candidate for governor of Arkansas in 1956 and 1966, and in 1968 an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S...
. Pryor received 86,887 votes (65 percent) to Lowe's 46,804 (35 percent). Lowe ran as a conservative and refused to deny or confirm reports that he had formerly belonged to the John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
. Lowe had told voters that they could repudiate President Johnson in 1966, when Johnson's name was not on the ballot, by supporting the Republican congressional campaign. He urged "local determination of local problems", and Pryor stressed his record as one of the reformers known as the "Young Turks" from the Arkansas House of Representatives
Arkansas House of Representatives
The Arkansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arkansas General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The House is composed of 100 members elected from an equal amount of constituencies across the state. Each district has an average population of 26,734...
.
Gubernatorial bid
In 1978, Lowe, midway in his tenure as state party chairman, ran unopposed for the party's gubernatorial nomination. No other prominent figure stepped forward for the task of challenging Bill Clinton, who had been unopposed in the general election of 1976 for the office of state attorney general. Many seemed to have thought that Clinton had won the office merely by winning the Democratic nomination. Clinton supported the Equal Rights AmendmentEqual Rights Amendment
The Equal Rights Amendment was a proposed amendment to the United States Constitution. The ERA was originally written by Alice Paul and, in 1923, it was introduced in the Congress for the first time...
to the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...
, which was never ratified by the Arkansas legislature. He declared the matter a "dead issue" in Arkansas though ratification
Ratification
Ratification is a principal's approval of an act of its agent where the agent lacked authority to legally bind the principal. The term applies to private contract law, international treaties, and constitutionals in federations such as the United States and Canada.- Private law :In contract law, the...
was still being sought on the national level by the administration of President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
.
Lowe found few issues on which to challenge Clinton until the Democrat announced his opposition to a referendum
Referendum
A referendum is a direct vote in which an entire electorate is asked to either accept or reject a particular proposal. This may result in the adoption of a new constitution, a constitutional amendment, a law, the recall of an elected official or simply a specific government policy. It is a form of...
to remove the state sales tax on groceries and prescription drugs. Clinton determined that the state could not afford to lose the $60 million then procured from the sales tax. Lowe noted a $40 million state surplus and urged repeal of the taxes. Not only did Clinton defeat Lowe, but the removal of the sales taxes failed, 55-45 percent.
With his election a foregone conclusion, Clinton called the campaign against Lowe "uneventful except for the press conference on the steps of the Capitol in which his campaign accused me of being a draft dodger." Lowe's charge would be raised again nearly fourteen years later in the 1992 presidential primary campaign. The Arkadelphia Southern Standard newspaper in Arkadelphia
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Arkadelphia is a city in Clark County, Arkansas, United States. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 10,548. The city is the county seat of Clark County. The city is situated at the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Two universities, Henderson State...
claimed that Clinton could hardly lose "unless he stumbles badly or is caught molesting a nun in the process of robbing the church widows’ and orphans’ funds."U.S. News and World Report said that no state in the U.S. South in 1978 was "tougher to crack for the Republicans than Arkansas, and it's going to stay that way." Clinton hence became at thirty-two the youngest person elected governor in the United States since Harold E. Stassen won in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
in 1938 at the age of thirty-one. He was termed "a living monument to the god 'Charisma'"
Lowe received 195,550 votes (36.6 percent) and won six counties: Sebastian (Fort Smith, with 62.5 percent), Crawford (near Fort Smith with 55 percent), Boone
Boone County, Arkansas
Boone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2010 census, the population was 36,903. The county seat is Harrison. Boone County is Arkansas's 62nd county, formed on April 9, 1869. Boone County is part of the Harrison Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:Boone County...
(Harrison
Harrison, Arkansas
Harrison is a city in Boone County, Arkansas, United States. It is the county seat. According to 2007 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city was 13,108. Boone County was organized in 1869, during reconstruction after the civil war. Harrison was platted and made the county seat. It is...
, with 54.9 percent), Polk (54.4 percent), Van Buren (54.1 percent), and his own Miller (53.6 percent). He won 49.8 percent in Franklin, also near Fort Smith and the home base of then U.S. Senator Dale L. Bumpers. Clinton prevailed with 338,684 votees (63.4 percent) and won the remaining sixty-nine counties. It was the best showing by a GOP nominee for governor since Winthrop Rockefeller's 1970 defeat. While Lowe lost to Clinton, Lowe's former congressional rival, outgoing Governor David Pryor, won a sweeping victory for the U.S. Senate over the Little Rock Republican William Thomas Kelly, Jr., a representative of his party's liberal wing.
U.S. Representative John Paul Hammerschmidt
John Paul Hammerschmidt
John Paul Hammerschmidt is an American politician from the U.S. state of Arkansas. A Republican, Hammerschmidt served for thirteen terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from the northwestern Arkansas district before he retired in 1993...
, the first Arkansas Republican congressman since Reconstruction, was instrumental in helping his friend Lowe to win in Boone County. Hammerschmidt had also been party chairman for a time before and again after his congressional service. He also preceded Lowe as the party's national committeeman. Lowe was a Hammerschmidt donor from 1982-1988. He also contributed $1,000 to the Arkansas party organization after he left as chairman.
Party leader
Lowe was elected state party chairman in December 1974, when State Senator Jim R. Caldwell stepped down from the unpaid position, to which he had been elected in March 1973. Lowe defeated three candidates, Dr. Robert Luther of Arkadelphia, who later served as the party executive director; Marshall Martin of BentonBenton, Arkansas
Benton is a city in and the county seat of Saline County, Arkansas, United States and a suburb of Little Rock. It was established in 1837. According to a 2006 Special Census conducted at the request of the city government, the population of the city is 27,717, ranking it as the state's 16th largest...
, the Saline County party chairman and a former aide to Governor Rockefeller, and Bob Scott of Little Rock, a moderate and former Rockefeller associate. Though considered a conservative, Lowe was friendly with Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Nelson A. Rockefeller, Winthrop Rockefeller's older brother who had been nominated to fill the second slot by President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., upon Ford's accession to the presidency after the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon. Lowe said that Nelson Rockefeller was popular among Arkansas Republicans because of "the feelings for his brother." Yet, Lowe said that a more conservative running mate might be needed for Ford in 1976, having foreshadowed the replacement of Nelson Rockefeller on the GOP ticket by Robert J. Dole of Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
.
Lowe described Winthrop Rockefeller as "a very unusual guy with the best interest of Arkansas and its people at heart. If he made a mistake, it was not because he wanted to do so." Lowe said that his early years as chairman came at a time when the Arkansas GOP was "about as flat on our back as a party could be. By 1980, we had come from one state legislator to a governor, Frank D. White
Frank D. White
Frank Durward White was the 41st Governor of the U.S. state of Arkansas since Reconstruction. He served a single two-year term from 1981 to 1983. He is one of only two people to have defeated President Bill Clinton in an election. Frank Durward White (June 4, 1933 – May 21, 2003) was...
, and two members of the U.S. House", John Paul Hammerschmidt and Edwin R. Bethune.
Lowe served three two-year terms as chairman, having been succeeded in June 1980 by the vice chairman who became the interim chairman, Jeraldine D. "Jeri" Pruden, of Hope, the seat of Hempstead County in south Arkansas and the birthplace of Bill Clinton. In December 1980, Harlan Holleman
Harlan Holleman
Harlan Harmon "Bo" Holleman was a farmer and seed merchant from Wynne, the seat of Cross County in eastern Arkansas, and a pioneer in the development of the modern Republican Party in his home state. He was the Arkansas state GOP chairman from December 6, 1980, until his death some sixteen months...
was elected and served as chairman until his death in March 1982. Like Lowe, Holleman was also a former candidate for the U.S. Congress.
On August 10, 1975, Lowe and then State Representative Carolyn Pollan
Carolyn Pollan
Carolyn Joan Clark Pollan is an American politician and former Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives who served for twelve consecutive two-year terms from 1975-1999 from a portion of Sebastian County, which includes the state's second largest city of Fort Smith...
of Fort Smith hosted U.S. President Ford, who attended a reception of some thirty Arkansas Republican leaders held at the Sheraton Inn in Fort Smith. Earlier in the day, Ford had toured Fort Chaffee
Fort Chaffee
Fort Chaffee Maneuver Training Center is in the northwest Arkansas region adjacent to the city of Fort Smith, located one mile southeast of Fort Smith Regional Airport. The Arkansas River flows eastward along the northern border of the post. Interstate 40 is five miles to the north on the...
, accompanied by Senator John L. McClellan and other Democratic members of the Arkansas congressional delegation. Ford's stops included the Vietnam Refugee Resettlement Center there.
Lowe was sergeant at arms at the 1980 Republican National Convention
1980 Republican National Convention
The 1980 National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States convened at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan, from July 14 to July 17, 1980. The 32nd Republican National Convention nominated former Governor Ronald W. Reagan of California for President of the United States and former...
in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. The Arkansas delegation included Ada Mills
Ada Mills
Ada Belle Parks Mills was a Republican political activist in the U.S. state of Arkansas who in 1980 was the only delegate initially committed to the candidacy for president of former Governor John B. Connally, Jr., of Texas. Connally spent some $11 million in his 13-month primary campaign, which...
of Clarksville
Clarksville, Arkansas
Clarksville is a city in Johnson County, Arkansas, United States. The population was approximately 9,300 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of Johnson County.. Clarksville is nestled between the Arkansas River and the foot hills of the Ozark Mountains and Interstate 40 and US Hwy 64...
, who had received national attention for having been the only delegate in the country initially committed to former Governor
Governor of Texas
The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature...
John B. Connally, Jr., for the presidential nomination that year. As state party chairman, Lowe had been technically neutral at the convention, but Lowe and the entire Arkansas delegation routinely voted to nominate Ronald W. Reagan, who would then tap George Herbert Walker Bush of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
as his vice-presidential
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
choice.
After his three terms as party chairman, Lowe served from 1980-1988 as the Arkansas Republican national committeeman. When Bill Clinton returned in 1982 for a second nonconsecutive two-year term as governor, his former rival Lowe told the GOP executive committee, meeting in Little Rock, that he had observed "the exchange of paper money" at a polling precinct in Texarkana eleven days earlier. Lowe said that he feared the "ugly monster" of corrupt election practices was returning to Arkansas and would "play havoc" with future Republican opportunities. He declined to answer reporters' questions about instances of specific fraud in state politics.
In 2000, Lowe was a donor to Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
, successful in a close electoral vote over Clinton's vice president, Al Gore, Jr.
Lowe was the board chairman of the Southwest Arkansas Electric Cooperative Commission in Texarkana. He was a participant in the federal farm program, having received $108,057 in subsidies
Subsidy
A subsidy is an assistance paid to a business or economic sector. Most subsidies are made by the government to producers or distributors in an industry to prevent the decline of that industry or an increase in the prices of its products or simply to encourage it to hire more labor A subsidy (also...
in 2002. From 1995-2006, Lowe received $464,806 in subsidies.
Lowe died at the age of seventy-four at his home in Garland, Arkansas. A memorial service was held on August 21, 2010, at the First Lutheran Church of Texarkana, Texas, with the Reverend Berry Kolb officiating. Lowe was interred on his farm.
Lowe's death come one month after the passing of Leon Griffith
Leon Griffith
Louis Leon Griffith was a master plumber from North Little Rock, who was the Arkansas Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1976, losing the election to Democratic incumbent Governor David H. Pryor....
, the 1976 GOP gubernatorial nominee, who was overwhelmed in that heavily Democratic year by Governor David H. Pryor, who had defeated Lowe for Congress in 1966.