Alan Steelman - Congressional Races, 1972 and 1974

Congressional Races, 1972 and 1974

In 1972, Steelman was a visiting fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. From 1969 to 1972, he was a member of President Richard M. Nixon's Advisory Council on Minority Business Enterprise, when he was elected to Congress. Steelman unseated incumbent Democratic Congressman Earle Cabell, a former mayor of Dallas who had served since 1965, when he unseated in November 1964 the Republican incumbent Bruce Alger. Steelman polled 74,932 votes (55.7 percent) to Cabell's 59,601 (44.3 percent).

In 1974, a heavily Democratic year both in Texas and nationally, Steelman barely survived the challenge of Mike McCool. In a low-turnout election, Steelman polled 28,446 (52.1 percent) to McCool's 26,190 (47.9 percent).