TITLE: Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the election of John Tower as the first Texas Republican to serve in the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

SUMMARY: Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the election of John Tower as the first Texas Republican to serve in the United States Senate since Reconstruction.

FULL TEXT:
WHEREAS, May 27, 2011, marks the 50th anniversary of the election of John Tower as the Lone Star State's first Republican United States senator since Reconstruction; and WHEREAS, Born in Houston on September 29, 1925, John Goodwin Tower became active in the Republican Party when he was an assistant professor of political science at Midwestern University; he served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1956, and in 1960 his party nominated him to run for the U.S. Senate; and WHEREAS, When Lyndon B. Johnson resigned from the senate to assume the vice presidency, Senator Tower won the seat in a special election on May 27, 1961; many hailed this event as heralding the advent of two-party politics in Texas; Senator Tower was reelected three times, and over the course of his 24-year career in Congress, he wielded enormous influence in a variety of domestic and foreign policy issues, particularly through his service on powerful banking committees and on the Senate Armed Services Committee; moreover, he took a leadership role in Republican politics at the state and national level; after retiring from the U.S. Senate in 1985, he went on to serve as the nation's chief negotiator at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva, and he led the group known as the Tower Commission in an investigation of the Iran-Contra affair; and WHEREAS, Senator John Tower perished in a commuter plane crash in 1991, but his accomplishments have resonated through the years, and his election to the U.S. Senate continues to be regarded as a turning point in the political history of Texas; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 82nd Texas Legislature hereby commemorate the 50th anniversary of John Tower's election to the United States Senate.