Dolph Briscoe - 1972 Campaign For Governor

1972 Campaign For Governor

Four years later, when the Sharpstown scandal rocked state government, Briscoe ran as a reform candidate and defeated incumbent Gov. Preston Smith, who was seeking a third two-year term and Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes in the Democratic primary. Smith's troubled tenure in office was marred by the Sharpstown scandal, a bank fraud case exposed by the "Dirty 30" lawmakers including Joseph Hugh Allen and Robert Gammage. He later bested another reform candidate in liberal activist Frances "Sissy" Farenthold of Corpus Christi for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in a heated runoff primary. He ran on a platform of honesty and integrity in government and opposed any new state taxes. After his victory in the Democratic primary, Briscoe narrowly defeated the Republican candidate, State Senator Henry Grover of Houston, in the November 1972 general election. The final tally was 1,633,493 (47.9 percent) for Briscoe and 1,533,986 (45 percent) for Grover. The Raza Unida Party candidate, 29-year-old Ramsey Muñiz, received 214,118 votes (6 percent), nearly all believed to have been at Briscoe's expense. Notably, Briscoe won his contest while President Richard Nixon easily defeated Democratic nominee George McGovern by nearly a two-to-one margin in Texas.