William Steger - Republican Political Activities

Republican Political Activities

In Longview, Steger became involved in various Republican activities. He was chairman of the Eisenhower-Nixon campaign in East Texas and was a delegate to the 1952 Republican National Convention, which met in Chicago, Illinois. Thereafter, President Eisenhower named Steger as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas. This appointment brought him and Mrs. Steger to Tyler, where he served as U.S. attorney until his resignation in 1959. Steger then joined the Tyler law firm of Wilson, Miller, Spivey, and Steger, where he practiced law until 1970. During his years of private practice in Tyler, he continued to remain active in Republican politics.

The Texas GOP nominated Steger as its candidate for governor in 1960. Though he was handily defeated by Democratic Governor Price Daniel, he polled sufficient votes to allow the Republican Party to hold its first presidential primary in Texas in 1964, rather than selecting delegates in caucuses, as had been the custom. Daniel received 1,637,755 votes (72.8 percent) to Steger's 612,963 ballots (27.2 percent). In the Democratic primary for what turned out to have been his last term as governor, Daniel defeated Jack Cox, an oil equipment executive from Houston, who would thereafter switch parties and become the 1962 Republican gubernatorial nominee.

In 1961, Steger became president of the Smith County Republican Men’s Club. In 1962, he challenged veteran Democrat Lindley Garrison Beckworth for the Fifth District seat in the United States House of Representatives. In a narrow loss, Steger received 24,803 votes (48 percent) to Beckworth's 26,915 (52 percent).

Steger was also a Republican presidential elector in 1964, but the Johnson-Humphrey slate easily won Texas that year. In 1966, Steger was elected to the State Republican Executive Committee. In 1967, he was appointed subcommittee chairman of the Texas Republican Task Force on Crime and Law Enforcement. He was a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention, which met in Miami Beach, and he was reelected to the State Republican Executive Committee that same year.

In 1969, Steger served as chairman of the Rules Committee at the state Republican Party convention, and later that year was elected state party chairman. He served through the 1970 elections, which were keenly disappointing to the state GOP.