William Anderson (naval Officer) - Political Career

Political Career

Upon retiring from the Navy, Anderson entered politics. He mounted an independent campaign for governor of Tennessee in 1962, finishing second to former Democratic governor Frank G. Clement. While the race was not particularly close, he made several important political contacts and provided Clement with his main competition outside of the Republican stronghold of East Tennessee.

In 1964 Anderson entered the Democratic primary to replace Sixth District Congressman Ross Bass, who was running for the United States Senate to finish the term of the late Estes Kefauver, and won both the nomination and the subsequent general election. (Fellow retired naval officer George W. Grider was elected to the Ninth District seat, in the Memphis area, on the same day.) Anderson was reelected three times. He received less than 70% of the vote only in 1968, when Richard Nixon won the state.

Anderson proved to be somewhat more liberal than expected for a naval veteran representing a largely rural district in western and central Tennessee. In fact, in the Tennessee congressional delegation of that time, only Richard Fulton of the neighboring 5th District (Nashville) had a more liberal voting record. Anderson was well regarded in some Democratic circles and was sometimes mentioned as potentially having a bright future, with some even suggesting him as a potential vice presidential nominee in 1972 based largely upon his military record.

However, Anderson's independent gubernatorial race and his progressive tendencies had not been forgotten by many of his fellow Democrats, particularly in the General Assembly. Tennessee was slated to lose a congressional district as a result of reapportionment following the 1970 census, and Anderson's district was considerably reconfigured prior to the 1972 elections. Anderson's district received a large area around Memphis where Republican influence was strong and growing, while simultaneously losing some solidly Democratic areas.

Observers felt that if there was a vulnerable Democratic incumbent in the Tennessee congressional delegation in 1972, it was probably Anderson. This came to pass in the gigantic Republican landslide of 1972, in which President Nixon carried 49 of 50 states and 90 of Tennessee's 95 counties, and Anderson lost to Republican state personnel commissioner Robin Beard by 12 points. Since then, the district—renumbered the Seventh District in 1983 —has become the state's most Republican region outside of East Tennessee, and Democrats made only three serious bids for the seat so far.

Anderson retired from public life. He served as an officer with the Public Office Corporation, and lived in Alexandria, Virginia. He died on February 25, 2007, after living in Leesburg, Virginia during the final years of his life.