Fred Harris, a self-described populist Democrat from Oklahoma who served eight years within the U.S. Senate earlier than an unsuccessful marketing campaign for president in 1976, has died. He was 94.
Harris’ spouse, Margaret Elliston, confirmed his demise to the Related Press in a textual content message on Saturday, writing: “Fred Harris handed peacefully early this morning of pure causes. He was 94. He was an exquisite and beloved man. His reminiscence is a blessing.”
Harris, who was dwelling in New Mexico, died in a hospital in Albuquerque, Elliston advised The New York Occasions.
Harris first served for eight years within the Oklahoma State Senate after successful election in 1956. He then launched his profession in nationwide politics in 1964 when he gained a Senate race to fill the emptiness left by Sen. Robert S. Kerr, who died in January 1963.
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Sen. Fred R. Harris, D-Okla., holds a duplicate of the report of the Nationwide Advisory Fee on Civil Problems as he and two different members of the fee focus on the examine on the television-radio program “Points and Solutions,” in Washington, March 3, 1968. (AP Picture/Bob Daugherty, File)
“I’ve at all times known as myself a populist or progressive,” Harris stated in a 1998 interview. “I’m in opposition to concentrated energy. I don’t like the ability of cash in politics. I feel we should have packages for the center class and dealing class.”
As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Nationwide Advisory Fee on Civil Problems, the so-called Kerner Fee, appointed by then-President Lyndon Johnson to analyze the city riots of the late Nineteen Sixties.
Sen. Fred Harris of Oklahoma served within the U.S. Senate for eight years. (AP Picture, File)
The fee launched its report in 1968, declaring, “our nation is transferring towards two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.”
Thirty years later, Harris co-wrote a report that concluded the fee’s “prophecy has come to move,” stating that “the wealthy are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and minorities are struggling disproportionately.”
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In 1976, Harris ran a failed bid to earn the Democratic presidential nomination, bowing out of the race after poor showings in early contests. The extra reasonable Jimmy Carter went on to win the presidency.
Harris moved to New Mexico that 12 months and have become a political science professor on the College of New Mexico. He wrote and edited greater than a dozen books, totally on politics and Congress. In 1999, he broadened his writings with a thriller set in Despair-era Oklahoma.
Former Oklahoma Sen. Fred Harris stands exterior his Corrales, N.M., residence, Friday, July 23, 2004. Harris died Saturday at a hospital in Albuquerque, his spouse stated. He was 94. (AP Picture/Jake Schoellkopf, File)
Harris was born Nov. 13, 1930, in a two-room farmhouse close to Walters, in southwestern Oklahoma. The house had no electrical energy, indoor rest room or operating water. He labored on the farm beginning at age 5, driving a horse in circles to produce a hay bailer with energy – incomes 10 cents a day.
He later labored part-time as a janitor and printer’s assistant to assist pay for his training on the College of Oklahoma, the place he earned a legislation diploma in 1954. He practiced legislation in Lawton earlier than starting his profession in politics.
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Harris married his highschool sweetheart, LaDonna Vita Crawford, in 1949, and had three kids, Kathryn, Byron and Laura. After the couple divorced, Harris married Margaret Elliston in 1983.
The Related Press contributed to this report.