Joseph Bracken Lee

Sen. William E. Jenner, Sen. Joe McCarthy, Gov. J. Bracken Lee

Joseph Bracken Lee, January 7, 1899 (Price, Utah) – October 20, 1996 (Salt Lake City, Utah)

VP candidate for Texas Constitution Party (1956)

Running mate with nominee: William E. Jenner (1908-1985)

Popular vote: 0 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The Texas Constitution Party was yet another protest organization that was part of the states' rights movement of the 1950s-1960s as a reaction to court-ordered racial integration. The national Constitution Party endorsed the States' Rights Party team of Thomas Coleman Andrew/Thomas Harold Werdel. But for reasons that are unclear, the Texas branch decided not to support the SRP ticket and ran their own candidates.

In Feb. 1956 the Texas Constitution Party nominated two extremely conservative Republicans: Sen. William E. Jenner of Indiana and Gov. J. Bracken "Brack" Lee of Utah. Jenner was also on the ballot that year as the VP for the States' Rights Party of Kentucky. Yes, it gets confusing real fast.

Gov. Lee was known for his style of blunt confrontation and for pulling colorful political stunts like being very public about refusing to pay his income tax unless certain conditions were met. In 1956 he was defeated in the Republican primary process for reelection and decided to try for another term instead as an Independent (and finished surprisingly well, but still failed to win).

Lee and Jenner do not seem to have been active in the campaign and were most likely nominated without their permission. Biographies of Gov. Lee give scant mention to the Texas Constitution Party if in fact it is even mentioned at all.

The platform of the party, which reflected Lee's own political beliefs, called for pulling the United States out of the United Nations, a repeal of the income tax laws, and giving communities full control of their schools (i.e. code for pro-segregation).

The Jenner/Lee ticket apparently did not make it to ballot status in Texas.

Election history:
1931 - Mayor of Price, Utah - defeated
1936-1947 - Mayor of Price, Utah
1940 - Republican nomination for Governor of Utah - defeated
1942 - US House of Representatives (Utah) (Republican) - defeated
1944 - Governor of Utah (Republican) - defeated
1949-1957 - Governor of Utah (Republican)
1956 - Republican nomination for Governor of Utah - defeated
1956 - Governor of Utah (Independent) - defeated
1958 - US Senate (Independent) - defeated
1960 - US President (Conservative Party of New Jersey) - defeated
1960-1972 - Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah
1962 - Republican primary for US Senate - defeated

Other occupations: soldier (WWI), insurance business, semi-professional baseball player, real estate, newspaper publisher

Buried: Mount Olivet Cemetery (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Notes:
Most recent of three non-Mormon Governors of Utah.
Freemason.
In Mar. 1964 Louis E. Jaeckel, a Lancaster, SC free-lance writer announced he was running for
 President under the American Party (aka American Write-In Party) and "said his running mate may
 be J. Bracken Lee, former governor of Utah." Within a few a days wrote a letter of apology to Lee.

William Ezra Jenner

William Ezra Jenner, July 21, 1908 (Marengo, Ind.) – March 9, 1985 (Bedford, Ind.)

VP candidate for States' Rights Party of Kentucky (1956)

Running mate with nominee: Harry Flood Byrd Sr. (1887-1966)

Popular vote: 2657 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/531

The campaign:

The States' Rights Party of Kentucky seems to have had it's origin with the issue of school integration in Union County. In Sept. 1956 Gov. A.B. "Happy" Chandler, a Democrat, was obliged to request the presence of 900 National Guard troops, with tanks, in the town of Sturgis. A crowd of 500 or so segregationists attempted to block a small group of African-American students from attending the previously all-white school-- a familiar scene that would be repeated for the next decade throughout the Southern states.

Said Chandler, "We regret it is necessary to use this means of guaranteeing equal rights to our citizens, but that we must do." White supremacists took advantage of the unrest and organized a rally in Morganifield, the county seat.

The mass-meeting called for the impeachment of Chandler and the formation of a States' Rights Party of Kentucky. Present was Louisville segregationist, KKK member, anti-Semite, and states rights' activist with a name right out of a Faulkner novel, Millard Dee Grubbs. In 1956 Grubbs had also formed an alliance with John Kasper, who was promoting fascist Ezra Pound for President in 1956 and not as an ironic joke. A petition was being handed around Morganfield by Jack Kershaw of Nashville, VP of the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government and W.W. "Jerry" Waller, a local farm implement dealer and President of the Union County White Citizens Council.

Kershaw (1913-2010) was an ardent segregationist, Southern secessionist, and later James Earl Ray's defense attorney. In later years he sculpted the infamous Nathan Bedford Forrest Statue, defending himself from the ensuing criticism with, "Somebody needs to say a good word for slavery".

Although information is scarce on the details, the Party apparently made it to the Kentucky ballot with Democratic Sen. Harry F. Byrd Sr. of Virginia as their Presidential nominee and Indiana Republican US Senator and right-hand man to Joe McCarthy, William E. Jenner, as the running mate. It is probable both senators were nominated without their permission but they evidently did not spurn the honor. In this same election Jenner was also the Presidential nominee of another local states' rights party, the Texas Constitution Party.

On the ballot only in Kentucky, the Byrd/Jenner ticket placed third in that state with 0.25% of the popular vote.

Election history:
1934-1942 - Indiana State Senate (Republican)
1940 - Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana - defeated
1944-1945 - US Senate (Ind.) (Republican)
1947-1959 - US Senate (Ind.) (Republican)
1948 - Republican nomination for Governor of Indiana - defeated
1956 - US President (Texas Constitution Party) - defeated

Other occupations: elevator operator, attorney, soldier in WWII, land developer

Buried: Cresthaven Memory Gardens Cemetery (Bedford, Ind.)

Notes:
Defeated Charles M. La Follete, third cousin of 1924 Progressive Party Presidential candidate Robert
 M. La Follette, for the Republican nomination for US Senate in 1946.