Charles T. Bernard
| Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. | |
|---|---|
| Arkansas Republican Party State Chairman | |
|
In office 1971–1973 | |
| Preceded by | Odell Pollard |
| Succeeded by | Jim R. Caldwell |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
1927 Earle, Crittenden County Arkansas, USA |
| Political party | Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, 1968 |
| Spouse(s) | Betty H. Bernard |
| Children | Charles T. Bernard, Jr. |
| Occupation | Farmer; businessman |
| Bernard in 1968 made the strongest showing of any Republican nominee against Democratic U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright in Arkansas but barely reached 40 percent. | |
Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. (born 1927),[1] is an American retired businessman and politician formerly from Earle in Crittenden County in eastern Arkansas. He is best known as the 1968 Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat held by long-time Democrat J. William Fulbright of Fayetteville.
Although Fulbright was comfortably re-elected, Bernard, later the Republican state chairman from 1971 to 1973, was his strongest Republican opponent, for in all previous contests Fulbright had been returned to office unopposed or without significant opposition.[2] In the primary, Fulbright had handily defeated James D. Johnson of Conway, a segregationist Democrat who had lost 1966 gubernatorial general election to Republican Winthrop Rockefeller. Fulbright won his final election[3] with 59.2 percent to Bernard's 40.2 percent. Bernard's ticket mate, Governor Rockefeller, scored a second two-year term by defeating the Democrat Marion H. Crank of Foreman in Little River County in southwestern Arkansas. Crank had earlier defeated Johnson's wife, Virginia Morris Johnson, in the Democratic gubernatorial runoff election.
In 1970, Bernard and then Republican State Representative George E. Nowotny of Fort Smith both considered running for governor had Rockefeller not sought a third term.
Bernard won the state chairmanship to succeed Odell Pollard of Searcy in White County in balloting before the GOP State Committee held in Little Rock after Rockefeller's defeat for governor in 1970. Bernard defeated Rockefeller's stated choice, William T. Kelly, Sr., of Little Rock, the Pulaski County chairman, and Everett Ham, a Rockefeller aide. The vote was 137 for Bernard, 28 for Kelly, and 27 for Ham. Delegates then named Ham as the vice chairman. John L. Ward, a Rockefeller biographer, said that Rockefeller's aides "felt like Bernard and the party had kicked Rockefeller's teeth in."[4] Years later, Robert Faulkner, Rockefeller's executive secretary in 1970, said that Bernard's victory for the chairmanship showed that many pre-Rockefeller Republicans in Arkansas "couldn't wait to throw out the Rockefeller influence and pick their own, more conservative, traditional Republican."[5]
Bernard operated One Hour Marvelizing dry cleaning establishments in eastern Arkansas.[1]
He is listed in 2013 as a resident of Naples, Florida.[6]
See also
Notes
- 1 2 "Bernard Family Crest". houseofnames.com. Retrieved December 4, 2009.
- ↑ In 1956, for instance, Fulbright polled 83 percent of the vote against the Republican candidate Ben C. Henley of Harrison. Henley, like Bernard, was a state party chairman.
- ↑ Fulbright was unseated in 1974 in the Democratic primary election by then Governor Dale Bumpers.
- ↑ Cathy Kunzinger Urwin, Agenda for Reform: Winthrop Rockefeller as Governor of Arkansas, 1967-71 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1991), p. 190, ISBN 1-55728-200-5
- ↑ Urwin, Agenda for Reform, p. 190
- ↑ "Charles T. Bernard". usa-people-search.com. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
References
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by None, 1966 |
Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Arkansas 1968 Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. |
Succeeded by Wayne H. Babbitt, 1972 |
| Preceded by Odell Pollard |
Arkansas Republican Party State Chairman
Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. |
Succeeded by Jim R. Caldwell |