John E. Jackson (Louisiana politician)

John Ellett Jackson, Sr. (August 3, 1892 – June 19, 1989), was a New Orleans lawyer best known for his leadership roles in the Louisiana Republican Party from 1928 to 1952, at a time when the party held no major public offices. He was the state party chairman from 1929 to 1934 and the Republican National Committeeman from 1934 to 1952.

Biography

Jackson was born to Alexander and Abby Frederick Watts Jackson in Palestine in Anderson County in East Texas. He graduated in 1916 from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.^[1] and established his law practice in 1921 in New Orleans, where he remained for the rest of his life. Jackson was a member of the American Bar Association, the Masonic lodge, Knights Templar, Shriners, and the Presbyterian Church.^[2]

In 1928, Jackson was the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor on the ticket headed by Etienne J. Caire of St. John the Baptist Parish, the party's failed nominee for governor against Huey Pierce Long, Jr. He was defeated by the Democrat Paul N. Cyr, a dentist from Jeanerette in Iberia Parish. After that race he became state chairman and served in that capacity for five years. He was a delegate to the 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, and 1948 Republican National Conventions, all of which nominated failed candidates against Franklin D. Roosevelt or Harry Truman.^[2] He was a presidential elector for Wendell Willkie in the 1940 election.^[3]

In the fall of 1947, Jackson addressed the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee to urge, somewhat unexpectedly, that the members and other interested persons not offer themselves as candidates in state and local races. "There is little chance of any Republican being elected in Louisiana", Jackson said. He instead urged all state partisans to send campaign funds to other states with contested races, where the GOP had a more realistic chance of victory.^[3] Political scientist Alexander Heard said that Jackson's stance made him wonder "what would have happened if the Louisiana party regularly contested elections, regularly capitalized on faction dissentions among the Democrats."^[4] While Jackson discouraged Louisiana Republicans from seeking office, Virginia Republicans were contesting 33 of 120 legislative races. A number of Republicans at the time were serving in the legislature of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina.^[5] Jackson was a former trustee of the Robert A. Taft Memorial Foundation. Robert A. Taft, a U.S. senator from Ohio and a son of U.S. President William Howard Taft, unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1940, 1948, and 1952. Jackson served on the national party executive committee in 1951 and 1952.

Jackson married Mary Louise Allen (1898-1993), a native of Tyler, Texas.^[6] The couple had a son and a daughter.

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