James Rogan with former U.S. Senator Fred Harris (D-OK), San Francisco, August 13, 1973
One must be a real political junkie to remember Fred Harris, who died yesterday at the age of 94. Sixty years ago, he was a rising star in American politics, and many saw in him a future president.
Born, raised, and educated in Oklahoma, he was a young 33-year-old state legislator when he ousted an incumbent to win a seat in the United States Senate in 1964. A liberal Democrat and early opponent of the Vietnam War, Harris made 1968 Democratic presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey's short list for a running mate (Humphrey eventually chose Senator Edmund Muskie).
Harris declined to seek reelection to the Senate in 1972, and instead made a brief and abortive run for the Democratic presidential nomination that year. Four years later, he made a more serious push for the nomination. In the early days of that race, he was far behind in the polls, with Arizona Congressman Morris Udall at one point dominating them. Harris combatted his limited donor base and meager campaign fund by traveling the country in an RV and sleeping in the homes of his supporters instead of at costly hotels. He gave each of his hosts a coupon redeemable for one night's sleep-over at the White House that was redeemable after he was won the presidency.
After making an unexpectedly impressive showing at the Iowa caucus—and running ahead of Udall—I still recall watching Harris' speech to his Iowa supporters that night and the great line that he delivered to them: "The winnowing out process has now begun, and we've just been winnowed in!" Unfortunately for Harris, in the following weeks, the primary voters across the electoral map winnowed him out: he ended his campaign for the presidency, retired from politics, moved to New Mexico, wrote a number of books, and taught political science at the university for many years.
I only met him once. It was in 1973, and it was at a television studio, where he was interviewed about his plans for the 1976 campaign. As you can see from the photograph taken of us back then, he was the trendsetter for the modern politicians appearing on TV without a necktie.
A nice man who saw an epic era of our national history from a front-row seat. Rest in peace.
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