page_title: J. James Exon
section_title: Senate career (1979–1997)
hierarchical_section_title: J. James Exon / Senate career (1979–1997)
caption_attribution_description: Official Congress Photo, J. James Exon, 1995
context_page_description: John James "Jim" Exon was an American Democratic politician. He served as the 33rd Governor of Nebraska from 1971 to 1979, and as a U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 1979 to 1997. Exon was a Nebraska Democrat who never lost an election, and the only Democrat to hold Nebraska's Class 2 U.S. Senate seat. He was elected governor in 1970, re-elected in 1974, elected to the Senate in 1978, and re-elected to that seat in 1984 and 1990. He is the only Nebraskan besides George W. Norris, the architect of Nebraska's unicameral legislature, to win five consecutive statewide elections.
context_section_description: Exon's popularity as Governor carried over to his 1978 campaign for the U.S. Senate, and he was elected with 68 percent of the vote. He had a reputation as a moderate Democrat, often working with Republicans on fiscal and military issues. While serving on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services, Exon was a strong defender of the B-2 stealth bomber.
  On October 19, 1983, Exon was one of four Democratic senators to vote against a bill establishing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The legislation was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan the following month.
  In 1984, Exon had the closest election in his political career, eventually winning re-election by 25,000 votes. He was re-elected again in 1990.
  He helped sponsor the Exon-Florio Amendment, which prevented takeovers or mergers by foreign companies of U.S. companies, if said merger was found to be a threat to national security.
  In 1988, Exon took 10 vacations paid for by lobbying groups.
  Exon helped to write and secure support for a spending reduction in the U.S. budget of $14 billion in 1994, which he stated was his proudest political achievement. His Communications Decency Act of 1996 was Congress' first effort to try to regulate content on the Internet with the goal of preventing access or transmission of pornography on the internet. It was later overturned by a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement of the First Amendment.
caption: 1995, Congressional Pictorial Directory
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