Eugene Joseph McCarthy (29 March 1916 – 10 December 2005) was a member of the US Senate from Minnesota (D) from 3 January 1959 to 3 January 1971, succeeding Edward John Thye and preceding Hubert Humphrey; he also served as a member of the US House of Representatives from Minnesota's 4th district from 3 January 1949 to 3 January 1959, succeeding Edward Devitt and preceding Joseph Karth.
Biography[]
Eugene Joseph McCarthy was born in Watkins, Minnesota on 29 March 1916, and he became an economics professor after graduating from the University of Minnesota. He served as a codebreaker for the Department of War during World War II, and he became a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and won election to the US House of Representatives in 1948. He served until winning election to the US Senate in 1958, and he was a prominent supporter of Adlai Stevenson II in the United States presidential election, 1960, and was himself a vice-presidential nomination candidate in 1964. In 1965, he supported the abolition of the immigration quota, but he came to regret this, later opposing immigration. As the 1960s progressed, McCarthy became a vocal critic of President Lyndon B. Johnson's handling of the Vietnam War, and he ran for the Democratic nomination during the United States presidential election, 1968 as an anti-war candidate. After McCarthy finished second in the New Hampshire primary, Johnson announced that he would not seek re-election, and Robert F. Kennedy entered the race. Kennedy's assassination put an end to his candidacy, and McCarthy would be passed over for the nomination in favor of Vice President Hubert Humphrey. McCarthy did not seek re-election to the Senate in 1970, and he fared poorly in the 1972 Democratic presidential primary while running for the party's nomination. In 1976, he won .9% of the popular vote while running for President as an independent. In 1980, McCarthy supported Republican Party presidential nominee Ronald Reagan's candidacy. He died in 2005.