page_title: Edward C. O'Rear
section_title: 1911 campaign for governor
hierarchical_section_title: Edward C. O'Rear / Political career / 1911 campaign for governor
caption_attribution_description: English: Kentucky Governor and Senator James B. McCreary
context_page_description: Edward Clay O'Rear was an American politician who served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals and was a Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 1888 and for Governor of Kentucky in 1911. His father died when O'Rear was very young, and he began work as a printer's devil to help support his mother and fourteen siblings. Eventually, he became editor of the Mountain Scorcher newspaper and read law under its publisher. He gained admission to the bar in 1882.
  In 1888, O'Rear failed to unseat incumbent Congressman William P. Taulbee, but in 1894, he was elected county judge of Montgomery County, Kentucky, by a small margin, becoming the only Republican to hold that office in the county's history. He was elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, then the state's highest court, in 1900 and was re-elected in 1908. Among his important decisions were legalizing parimutuel betting, designating counties as the voting unit in local option prohibition votes, and upholding the Day Law that mandated racial segregation in the state's public schools.
context_section_description: O'Rear was chosen as the Republican nominee for governor at the party's 1911 nominating convention, soundly defeating sitting Lieutenant Governor William Hopkinson Cox and candidate E. T. Franks. O'Rear and the convention adopted a progressive platform, including support for allowing initiatives and referendumss, women's suffrage, highway improvements, stronger labor laws, a non-partisan judiciary, creation of a public utilities commission, and direct election of U.S. senators. He also expressed sympathy for Black Patch tobacco farmers in their disputes with the American Tobacco Company, in contrast to sitting Republican Governor Augustus E. Willson, who had deployed the state militia to quell violence perpetrated by The Night Riders, a violent subset of the discontent farmers. Consequently, the more conservative wing of his party, including Willson and Senator-elect William O'Connell Bradley, gave him lukewarm support, at best. His decision in Berea College v. Kentucky also cost him support among African-American voters, who usually voted Republican in large numbers.
  The Democrats, who nominated former Governor and U.S. Senator James B. McCreary, were similarly divided by factionalism stemming from McCreary's Roman Catholicism and support for prohibition. For all the divisions within their own parties, however, there were very few differences between O'Rear and McCreary. Both supported prohibition and both advocated progressive, populist reforms. This lack of political differences gave rise to partisan and personal attacks. O'Rear emphasized the need to cleanse the state of Democratic rule which had, recent gains notwithstanding, dominated the state for decades. McCreary responded by citing Republicans' alleged record of "assassination, bloodshed, and disregard of law", references to Willson's suppression of the Night Riders, Bradley's contentious election as senator, and the assassination of Democratic Governor William Goebel, allegedly perpetrated by Republicans, including Caleb Powers, who had just been elected to Congress after being pardoned by Willson. On a personal level, O'Rear charged that McCreary would be a pawn of Democratic political boss J. C. W. Beckham, while McCreary criticized O'Rear for not resigning his position on the Court of Appeals – and continuing to accept his salary – while campaigning for governor. The support of wealthy entrepreneur John C. C. Mayo ensured that McCreary had a much better funded campaign, allowing him to utilize traditional campaign methods such as political barbecues as well as new ones such as motion pictures and travel by automobile. McCreary won the election by a vote of 226,771 to 195,436.
caption: James B. McCreary defeated O'Rear in the gubernatorial election of 1911.
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