With Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson
Harry Flood Byrd Sr., June 10, 1887 (Martinsburg, W. Va.) – October 20, 1966 (Berryville, Va.)
VP candidate for America First Party (1952)
Running mate with nominee: Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)
Popular vote: 233 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531
The campaign:
Fired General Douglas MacArthur was the belle of the ball for the Right wing in 1952, but the extreme conservatives were unable to unite in his name. MacArthur was nominated by the Christian Nationalist Party, Constitution Party, America First Party, and endorsed by Mary Kennery's American Party. Each group had different running mates and in some cases multiple "substitute" Vice-Presidential candidates in the same party. MacArthur was on the ballot twice running under two different party names in some places. The General never accepted any of the nominations, but on the other hand did not take legal steps to remove himself from the ballot.
Lar Daly (1912-1978) who would become better known in future elections as a perennial candidate garbed in an Uncle Sam costume, had been an activist to help Gen. MacArthur gain the Republican nomination in several election cycles including in 1952. When that failed he turned his efforts to running the General on the America First Party ticket in August. The name of the party was originally what the Christian Nationalist Party called itself, but Daly made it clear his organization had no connection with Gerald L.K. Smith.
Daly took the liberty of nominating Sen. Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (without any consultation) as the General's running mate. Byrd was an influential Virginia Democrat who was considered Right wing, anti-union, and pro-segregation. He was spending 1952 with a focus on his re-election to the Senate and had once again watched his name be put into nomination for the Presidential nomination at the Democratic convention only to watch it go down in flames. Byrd did not endorse Truman in 1948 and would not endorse Stevenson in 1952, primarily due to their progressive views on civil rights.
The America First Party of 1952's emblem was the turkey, which is rather fitting for a ticket named MacArthur/Byrd.
Daly, as the mouthpiece for the AFP, called for the use of atomic weapons to end the Korean War, a withdrawal of the US from the United Nations, and was "100 per cent behind" Sen. Joseph McCarthy's efforts to persecute Communists.
Unlike MacArthur, Byrd actually took steps to have his name removed from the AFP ticket by making a formal request Sept. 3, 1952.
On Oct. 11 Lar Daly announced the MacArthur for President Committee had been changed to the MacArthur for Eisenhower and America First Committee. He endorsed Eisenhower and said he would work to have MacArthur appointed Secretary of State. But it was too late to have the MacArthur/Byrd ticket removed from the ballot in Missouri, where they would be competing for votes with the MacArthur/Tenney ticket.
In Missouri the America First Party Presidential ticket won 233 votes. As near as I can ascertain all of their other votes across the nation were write-ins. Most modern sources have consolidated all of the various little splinter MacArthur political parties into a generic "MacArthur/Byrd" category but it was actually the Christian Nationalist Party ticket with Jack B. Tenney, a case in which the VP nominee was actually enthusiastic, where the old General gained the strongest following, such as it was.
Election history:
1915-1925 - Virginia State Senate (Democratic)
1926-1930 - Governor of Virginia (Democratic)
1932 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1933-1965 - US Senate (Democratic)
1944 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1948 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1952 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1956 - US President (States' Rights Party of Kentucky) - defeated
1956 - US President (Independent (Miss., SC)) - defeated
1960 - US President (Democratic) - defeated
Other occupations: newspaper publisher, apple orchard manager, turnpike operator 1908-1918, Virginia State Fuel Commissioner 1918
Buried: Mount Hebron Cemetery (Winchester, Va.)
Notes:
Member of the Byrd political dynasty in Virginia and a leader of the "Byrd Organization."
Born in the same community just two weeks apart from his fellow VA Senator Absolom Willis
Robertson (Rev. Pat Robertson's father)
Episcopalian
Family moved to Winchester, Va. when he was an infant.
Brother of Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, Jr.
Retired from the Senate Nov. 1965 for health reason, died of cancer Oct. 1966.
In 1960 received 15 Electoral College votes from one faithless and 14 unpledged electors for
President (1 Okla., 8 Miss., 6 Ala.)
