Wendell H. Ford - Political Career

Political Career

Ford was very active in civic affairs, becoming the first Kentuckian to serve as president of the Jaycees in 1954. He was a youth chairman of Bert T. Combs' 1959 gubernatorial campaign. After Combs' election, Ford served as Combs' executive assistant from 1959 to 1963. When his mother died in 1963, Ford returned to Owensboro to help his father with the family insurance agency. Although it was speculated he would run for lieutenant governor that year, Ford later insisted he had decided not to re-enter politics until Governor Ned Breathitt asked him to run against Casper "Cap" Gardner, the state senate's majority leader and a major obstacle to Breathitt's progressive legislative agenda. Ford won the 1965 election by only 305 votes but quickly became a key player in the state senate. Representing the Eighth District, including Daviess and Hancock counties, Ford introduced 22 major pieces of legislation that became law during his single term in the senate.

In 1967, Ford ran for lieutenant governor, this time against the wishes of Breathitt and Combs, whose pick was state attorney general Robert Matthews. Ford defeated Matthews by 631 votes, 0.2% of the total vote count in the primary. He ran an independent campaign and won in the general election even as Combs-Breathitt pick Henry Ward lost the race for governor to Republican Louie B. Nunn. Republicans and Democrats split the state offices, with five going to Republicans and four going to Democrats.

During his time as lieutenant governor, Ford rebuilt the state's Democratic machine, which would help elect him and others, including Senator Walter Huddleston and Governor Martha Layne Collins. When Governor Nunn asked the legislature to increase the state sales tax in 1968 from 3 percent to 5 percent, Ford opposed the measure, saying it should only pass if food and medicine were exempted. Ford lost this battle; the increase passed without exemptions. From 1970 to 1971, Ford was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Lieutenant Governors.