Eugene McCarthy

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Eugene Joseph McCarthy (born March 29, 1916) was a Congressman for Minnesota's Fourth District from 1949 to 1959 and a United States Senator for Minnesota from 1959 to 1971, where he served as a member of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In 1968, he ran against incumbent President Lyndon Johnson in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary, with the intention of making the federal government - then controlled entirely by Democrats - curtail its involvement in the Vietnam War. When McCarthy scored 42 percent to Johnson's 49 percent, it was clear that deep division existed between Democrats on the war issue. By this time, Johnson had become inextricably defined by Vietnam, and this demonstration of divided support within his party meant his reelection (only four years after winning the highest percentage of the popular vote in modern history) was unlikely. Two days later, Johnson announced he would not again seek the candidacy.

Despite strong showings in several primaries, McCarthy garnered only 23 percent of the delegates at that year's Democratic convention, due to the control of state party organizations over the delegate selection process. In the aftermath of the chaotic 1968 convention, Democrats convened the McGovern-Fraser commission to reexamine the manner in which delegates were chosen. The commission made a number of recommendations to reform the process, prompting widespread changes in Democratic state organizations and continual democratization for more than a decade. In response, the Republicans also formed a similar commission. Because of these changes, the practical role of national party conventions diminished dramatically. The most immediately visible effect of the reforms was the eventual nomination of national unknown Jimmy Carter by the Democrats in 1976.

After leaving the Senate, McCarthy became a senior editor at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich publishing and a syndicated newspaper columnist. He is also a published poet.

Preceded by:
Edward John Thye

US Senate
Minnesota Congressional Delegations

Succeeded by:
Hubert H. Humphrey