Ross Bass - Later Political Career

Later Political Career

Bass subsequently made two attempts to re-enter politics. He ran for the 1974 Democratic nomination for governor but finished fifth in a nine-candidate field, a surprisingly weak finish for a former Senator. (His strong stand against capital punishment was generally considered to hinder him.) In 1976 he entered the Democratic primary for his former House seat and won the nomination. The district, however, had been significantly redrawn since his previous service. Bass found himself running in a large amount of territory that he did not know and that did not know him. In addition, much of this territory was heavily Republican, having been added by the state legislature after the 1970 census in an attempt to punish his successor in Congress, William Anderson, for his perceived liberalism. Bass lost badly—by over 30 points—to Robin Beard, the Republican who had defeated Anderson, despite 1976 otherwise being almost a Democratic sweep in Tennessee, which voted for Jimmy Carter for President and saw the defeat of Senator Bill Brock in favor of Jim Sasser. Bass apparently saw that he had no future in elective politics.