First Run For U.S. Senate (1920)
In early 1920 Brookhart announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held since 1908 by Republican Albert B. Cummins. Cummins was a progressive senator but from an earlier generation, and distrusted both corporate interests and unions. Brookhart attempted to build his campaign around his criticism of railroad regulatory legislation Cummins had co-authored, the Esch-Cummins Act, which Brookhart claimed did too little to wrest ownership and control of railroads away from Wall Street interests. Brookhart attempted to lure rank-and-file blue-collar workers to register as Republicans so that they could vote for him in the primary, prompting Cummins to associate Brookhart with radical workers movements such as "the Socialists, reds and Industrial Workers of the World." Cummins was sidelined by illness in the weeks leading up to the primary, but nevertheless defeated Brookhart.
Read more about this topic: Smith W. Brookhart
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