State Senate
In 1954, Fulton was elected to the Tennessee State Senate in place of his brother Lyle, who had died suddenly shortly after receiving the Democratic nomination for that post. Fulton was sworn in on January 3, 1955. However, he had not yet turned 30, the age required for senators under the Tennessee State Constitution. His election was challenged on this basis, and the Senate voted unanimously (28-0) to unseat Fulton, whose post was then taken by Clifford Allen. Fulton ran for the position again in 1956, and this time was of age and seated. He was reelected in 1958, then left politics to begin a career in real estate.
Read more about this topic: Richard Fulton
Famous quotes containing the words state and/or senate:
“A State, in idea, is the opposite of a Church. A State regards classes, and not individuals; and it estimates classes, not by internal merit, but external accidents, as property, birth, etc. But a church does the reverse of this, and disregards all external accidents, and looks at men as individual persons, allowing no gradations of ranks, but such as greater or less wisdom, learning, and holiness ought to confer. A Church is, therefore, in idea, the only pure democracy.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Like Cato, give his little Senate laws,
And sit attentive to his own applause.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)