1974 Gubernatorial Campaign
In 1974 Blanton won a twelve-person Democratic primary for governor. With just 23% of the vote, he defeated several well-financed opponents including flamboyant East Tennessee banker Jake Butcher. In the November general election he defeated the Republican nominee, attorney Lamar Alexander, receiving the largest number of popular votes ever achieved for a statewide race in Tennessee to that date, 575,205. Blanton's strongest condemnation of Alexander seemed to be that he had served for a time on Nixon's White House staff. Nixon had resigned in disgrace only a few months earlier. Blanton also took advantage of the wide perception that Alexander was a somewhat distant, upper-class individual (despite Alexander's modest background as the son of schoolteachers).
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Famous quotes containing the word campaign:
“The fact that a man is to vote forces him to think. You may preach to a congregation by the year and not affect its thought because it is not called upon for definite action. But throw your subject into a campaign and it becomes a challenge.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)