Robert King High - Candidate For Governor

Candidate For Governor

Since the last part of the 19th century, Florida governors had been limited to a single four-year term, and were elected in the same year as presidential elections. In the early 1960s, Florida moved the election years for governors to fall between presidential elections. For the transition, the governor elected in 1964 would serve only two years, but would be eligible to run again in 1966 for a full four-year term. High entered the race for governor in 1964. He announced that he would refuse to accept large campaign donations, and traveled the state in a DC-3. The Miami News was the only newspaper in the state to endorse High. High came in second out of five contenders in the Democratic primary, but lost the run-off to Jacksonville mayor Haydon Burns, who became governor (Florida had elected only Democratic governors since the end of Reconstruction).

In June, 1965 High helped convince the American Football League to place an expansion franchise in Miami, which became the Miami Dolphins. Also in 1965, Governor Burns proposed a large highway construction bond issue for Florida. High campaigned vigorously against the road bond measure, and it was defeated. The same year High was reelected to his fifth term as Mayor of Miami.

High ran for governor again in 1966 under the slogan, "Integrity is the issue". Governor Burns charged that Robert F. Kennedy was behind High's campaign, pointing to three High campaign aides that had previously worked for Sargent Shriver, but Kennedy denied taking sides. High had been close to John F. Kennedy, as he had been the first elected official in Florida to support Kennedy's 1960 presidential campaign. Burns claimed to have the support of President Lyndon B. Johnson and Vice President Hubert Humphrey, but the White House denied taking sides.

During the 1966 primary campaign, a seat became vacant on the Miami city commission. High appointed M. Athalie Range, a black woman, to the seat. Range had led in the primary for a seat on the commission in the 1965 election, but lost to a white man in the run-off by a small margin after her race was made an issue in the election. Range was the first black person to serve on the Miami city commission. She went on to twice win reelection on her own, and later served as the first black to head a Florida state agency.

As had happened in the 1964 campaign, attempts were made to arouse segregationist white sentiments against High as the 'black' candidate. 'Throwaways', handouts with no attributed source, were circulated. One showed a pregnant black woman in a rocker, with the caption, "I went all the way with Robert King High". Another had pictures of Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy and Robert King High, and was labeled, "A poker hand one joker and a pair of Kings." A photograph of High playing pickup football with some black newsboys was widely circulated.

High again came in second in the primary, behind Burns. Scott Kelly, a conservative politician from rural northern Florida, who came in third in the primary, agreed to endorse High for the runoff, but did not plan to actively campaign. Governor Burns, however, charged that Kelly had offered to sell his support to Burns for $500,000, and that High had bought Kelly's support. The Miami News pointed out that High had raised only $140,000, while Burns had raised one million dollars for the campaign. Burns had spent $2.19 for each vote he had received, while Kelly had spent $1.40, and High had spent just 38 cents per vote. Kelly called Burns' charge "The Big Lie", and actively campaigned for High in the runoff.

High won the run-off by a sizable margin, even getting 43% of the vote in Burns' hometown of Jacksonville. Kelly continued to actively support High in the general election campaign, but Burns refused to support High. The High and Kelly campaign staff, and after the run-off, that part of the Burns campaign staff that joined the campaign, did not mix very well. In September Don Petit, High's campaign manager, quit over differences with Kelly. The campaign was seen as faltering and in disarray.

The Republican candidate for governor was Claude Kirk, who attacked High repeatedly. Kirk charged that under High, Miami had become the number two crime or sin city in country. One television advertisement showed a flashlight at the window of a dark room, and a woman screaming. Kirk called High an "ultra-liberal" and "a rubber stamp for Washington, backed by the ultra-liberals". Kirk started asking campaign crowds if they wanted "open housing". A new handout from a "Committee for Integrity in Government" showed a cartoon of High with the caption, "Black power is with you 100 percent, Bob, let's march." Just before the election, Burns charged that the Dade County Grand Jury was withholding indictments and information detrimental to High, which would have a direct bearing on the election. However, the grand jury foreman said there were no unissued indictments. Claude Kirk won the general election by about 160,000 votes, the first Republican to be elected governor of Florida in almost a century. Robert King High died of a heart attack less than a year later, on August 30, 1967.

Robert King High has been memorialized in Miami by the Robert King High Park and the Robert King High Tower Public Housing Facility.

• Robert King High stands to the far left of the picture as President Kennedy addresses the 2506 Cuban Invasion Brigade on December 29, 1962 at the Orange Bowl