page_title: Joe Foss
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Joe Foss / Postwar / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Joe Foss, Governor of South Dakota (1955–59)
context_page_description: Joseph Jacob Foss was a United States Marine Corps major and a leading Marine fighter ace in World War II. He received the Medal of Honor in recognition of his role in air combat during the Guadalcanal Campaign. In postwar years, he was an Air National Guard brigadier general, served as the 20th Governor of South Dakota, president of the National Rifle Association and the first commissioner of the American Football League. He also was a television broadcaster.
context_section_description: Campaigning from the cockpit of a light aircraft, Foss served two elected terms as a Republican representative in the South Dakota legislature and, beginning in 1955, at age 39, as the state's youngest governor. During his tenure as governor, he accompanied Tom Brokaw, then a high school student and Governor of South Dakota American Legion Boys State, to New York City for a joint appearance on "Two for the Money", a television game show, which featured Foss because of his wartime celebrity.  Foss had previously appeared on the long-running game show What's My Line on May 1, 1955. 
  In 1958, Foss unsuccessfully sought a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, having been defeated by another wartime pilot hero, the Democrat George McGovern. Foss tried to re-enter politics in 1962 in a campaign to succeed Sen. Francis Case, who died in office. Foss and several other contenders lost to Joseph H. Bottum, who filled out Case's term.
caption: Foss as Governor, 1955
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image Software": "GPL Ghostscript 9.07", "Image DateTime": "2017:03:29 20:06:03", "Image ExifOffset": "132", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:03:29 20:06:03", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:03:29 20:06:03", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "744", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "909"}