Politics
Swainson was elected to the Michigan State Senate from the 18th District in 1954 and was reelected in 1958. In 1958, when Philip Hart was elected to the United States Senate, Swainson succeeded Hart as Lieutenant Governor of Michigan under Governor G. Mennen Williams. When the long-serving and popular Williams announced he would not seek reelection in 1960, Swainson decided to enter the race, despite the advice of influential Democratic Party members, including Williams, not to run in deference to three-term Michigan Secretary of State James Hare. Swainson won the primary against the party favorite, largely due to strong support from labor unions.
On November 8, 1960, Swainson defeated Republican Paul D. Bagwell, a Michigan State University professor, in the close general election. As a result, the 35 year-old Swainson became the youngest Governor of Michigan in the 20th century. (The "Boy Governor", Stevens T. Mason, elected at age 24 in 1835, is the youngest.) He was also the first Michigan governor (before Jennifer Granholm) to not be "native born."
His Lieutenant Governor was T. John Lesinski. His primary opponent, James Hare, continued to serve as Michigan Secretary of State until 1971.
During his two years in office, a tax was secured on the usage of telegraphs, telephones, and leased wires, court procedures and medical care for the elderly were improved, legislative pensions were excluded from both local and state taxes, and taxes on liquor, beer and cigarettes were raised to fund educational programs.
When the Bluewater International Bridge (which spans the St. Clair River between Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario) was paid off, Swainson used an executive order to cancel the $.25 toll that had been collected. "Stoically", he effectively cancelled his own father's "$6,115-a-year toll-collector's job", which John A. C. Swainson held since 1957.
He appointed the first African American to sit on the Michigan Supreme Court.
In 1962, Swainson was defeated by Republican George W. Romney, the chairman of the American Motors Corporation and who had never before held elected office. The win was attributed in part to Romney's appeal to independent voters, as well as to the increasing influence of suburban Detroit voters, who by 1962 were more likely to vote Republican than the heavily Democratic city.
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