David F. Cargo
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David Francis Cargo was a Republican governor of New Mexico between 1967 and 1971. Cargo was born on January 13, 1929, in Dowagiac, Michigan, in Cass County, north of the Indiana state line. He won the governorship when he was 37 years of age. He remains one of the youngest governors elected to date in U.S. history, along with Harold Stassen in Minnesota (1938), Bill Clinton in Arkansas (1978), and Kit Bond and Matt Blunt in Missouri (1972) and (2004), respectively. He also represented Albuquerque in the New Mexico House of Representatives from 1963 to 1967.
[edit] Election as governor, 1966 and 1968
Cargo was considered a liberal Republican, more in the Nelson Rockefeller mode than in the Barry Goldwater image. He had difficulty winning the Republican primaries in both 1966 and 1968. Each time he faced the more conservative Clifford J. Hawley of Santa Fe. In 1966, Cargo won with 17,836 (51.8 percent) to Hawley's 16,588 (48.2 percent). He improved in 1968, when he defeated Hawley, 28,014 (54.9 percent) to 23,052 (45.1 percent).
Cargo won the general election of 1966, when he barely defeated Democrat T.E. Lusk. Cargo received 134,625 votes (51.7 percent) to Lusk's 125,587 (48.3 percent). Running again in 1968, Cargo won by an even smaller margin, 160,140 (50.5 percent) to Democrat Fabian Chavez, Jr.'s 157,230 ballots (49.5 percent).
As governor, Cargo started the state film commission, which has brought millions of dollars in revenue to the state of New Mexico. Cargo established ties to Hollywood and was even asked to appear in several films. He appeared in Bunny O'Hare, which starred Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine. During his first campaign for governor, he was known as "Lonesome Dave."
[edit] Later losing campaigns
Cargo could not seek a third two-year term in 1970. Gubernatorial terms became four years with the 1970 election. The Republicans nominated Pete V. Domenici of Albuquerque, who narrowly lost to the Democrat Bruce King. King polled 148,935 (51.3 percent) to Domenici's 134,640 (46.4 percent). (Another 2 percent went to a minor candidate.) In 1972, Domenici was elected to the U.S. Senate and still serves in that position.
Cargo hence ran for the U.S. Senate in 1970, but he lost the Republican primary to the conservative choice, Anderson "Andy" Carter, who was later a Ronald Reagan leader in New Mexico. Carter polled 32,122 (57.8 percent) to Cargo's 17,951 (32.3 percent). Andy Carter then lost the general election to incumbent Democrat Joseph M. Montoya, who later became nationally known as a member of the Senate Watergate Committee.
Cargo tried for a gubernatorial comeback in 1994. He ran a poor fourth (13 percent) in the primary and lost to Gary E. Johnson, a libertarian Republican. Johnson won the general election, having benefited from 1994 being a heavily Republican year nationwide.
From 1973 until 1985, Cargo relocated to Oregon with his wife (Ida Jo) and five children, Veronica, David, Patrick, Elena, and Eamon. He is an attorney in Albuquerque.
| Preceded by: Jack M. Campbell |
Governor of New Mexico 1967-1971 |
Succeeded by: Bruce King |
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| Governors of New Mexico |
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|---|---|
| Territorial: Bent • Calhoun • Lane • Meriwether • Rencher • Connelly • Mitchell • Pile • Giddings • Axtell • Wallace • Sheldon • Ross • Prince • Thornton • Otero • Hagerman • Curry • Mills
McDonald • Baca • Lindsey • Larrazolo • M. Mechem • Hinkle • Hannett • Dillon • Seligman • Hockenhull • Tingley • Miles • Dempsey • Mabry • E. Mechem • Simms • E. Mechem • Burroughs • E. Mechem • Bolack • Campbell • Cargo • King • Apodaca • King • Anaya • Carruthers • King • Johnson • Richardson |
Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections
