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Fred Harris, a self-described populist Democrat from Oklahoma who served eight years within the U.S. Senate earlier than an unsuccessful marketing campaign for president in 1976, has died. He was 94.
Harris’ spouse, Margaret Elliston, confirmed his dying to the Related Press in a textual content message on Saturday, writing: “Fred Harris handed peacefully early this morning of pure causes. He was 94. He was an exquisite and beloved man. His reminiscence is a blessing.”
Harris, who was residing in New Mexico, died in a hospital in Albuquerque, Elliston instructed The New York Instances.
Harris first served for eight years within the Oklahoma State Senate after profitable election in 1956. He then launched his profession in nationwide politics in 1964 when he received a Senate race to fill the emptiness left by Sen. Robert S. Kerr, who died in January 1963.
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Sen. Fred R. Harris, D-Okla., holds a replica of the report of the Nationwide Advisory Fee on Civil Issues as he and two different members of the fee focus on the examine on the television-radio program “Points and Solutions,” in Washington, March 3, 1968. (AP Picture/Bob Daugherty, File)
“I’ve all the time referred to as myself a populist or progressive,” Harris mentioned in a 1998 interview. “I’m towards concentrated energy. I don’t like the facility of cash in politics. I believe we must have applications for the center class and dealing class.”
As a U.S. senator, Harris was a member of the Nationwide Advisory Fee on Civil Issues, the so-called Kerner Fee, appointed by then-President Lyndon Johnson to research the city riots of the late Sixties.
Sen. Fred Harris of Oklahoma served within the U.S. Senate for eight years. (AP Picture, File)
The fee launched its report in 1968, declaring, “our nation is transferring towards two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal.”
Thirty years later, Harris co-wrote a report that concluded the fee’s “prophecy has come to cross,” stating that “the wealthy are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and minorities are struggling disproportionately.”
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In 1976, Harris ran a failed bid to earn the Democratic presidential nomination, bowing out of the race after poor showings in early contests. The extra average Jimmy Carter went on to win the presidency.
Harris moved to New Mexico that 12 months and have become a political science professor on the College of New Mexico. He wrote and edited greater than a dozen books, totally on politics and Congress. In 1999, he broadened his writings with a thriller set in Despair-era Oklahoma.
Former Oklahoma Sen. Fred Harris stands exterior his Corrales, N.M., residence, Friday, July 23, 2004. Harris died Saturday at a hospital in Albuquerque, his spouse mentioned. He was 94. (AP Picture/Jake Schoellkopf, File)
Harris was born Nov. 13, 1930, in a two-room farmhouse close to Walters, in southwestern Oklahoma. The house had no electrical energy, indoor rest room or working water. He labored on the farm beginning at age 5, driving a horse in circles to provide a hay bailer with energy – incomes 10 cents a day.
He later labored part-time as a janitor and printer’s assistant to assist pay for his schooling on the College of Oklahoma, the place he earned a regulation diploma in 1954. He practiced regulation in Lawton earlier than starting his profession in politics.
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Harris married his highschool sweetheart, LaDonna Vita Crawford, in 1949, and had three kids, Kathryn, Byron and Laura. After the couple divorced, Harris married Margaret Elliston in 1983.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
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