Henry Grover

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Henry Cushing "Hank" Grover (April 1, 1927-- November 28, 2005) was a conservative politician from the U.S. state of Texas best known for his relatively narrow defeat as the Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1972. Grover was born in Corpus Christi. He died in Houston of Alzheimer's disease.

Grover lived as a boy in San Antonio. A Roman Catholic, he graduated from the college-preparatory and all-male St. Thomas High School in Houston. He received his bachelor's degree in history and political science from the University of St. Thomas and his master's degree in the same subjects from the University of Houston.

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[edit] 1972 gubernatorial run

Grover was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1960, 1962, and 1964 as a Democrat. In 1966, he switched parties and was elected to the Texas Senate, Position 15.

In the 1972 Republican gubernatorial primary, Grover lead a field of five with 37,118 votes (32.6 percent). Houston businessman Albert Bel Fay ran second with 24,329 ballots (21.3 percent) Three other largely unknown candidates shared a surprisingly large 41.8 percent of the vote.

In an even lower turnout runoff primary, Grover defeated Fay (1913-1992), the Republican national committeeman from Texas (1960-1969). Grover received 37,842 votes (66.4 percent), some 700 more votes than he received in the first primary, to Fay's 19,166 (33.6 percent), or 5,000 fewer votes than he obtained in the primary. The Sharpstown bank scandal, which had damaged many of the state's Democratic leaders, worked to Grover's advantage, for he could depict himself as an untainted Republican nominee for governor. His uncompromising conservative, constitutionalist views may have hurt him among moderate voters in both parties.

Grover lost the general election by about 100,000 votes to the Democratic nominee, former state representative Dolph Briscoe of Uvalde. Grover carried almost all of the state's urban centers. The final tally was 1,633,493 (47.9 percent) for Briscoe and 1,533,986 (45 percent) for Grover. Briscoe was a "minority governor" because he failed to garner a simple majority of the votes. The Hispanic La Raza candidate, 29-year-old Ramsey Muñiz, received 214,118 votes (6 percent), nearly all believed to have been at Briscoe's expense. (Two other minor candidates shared 27,994 votes, or .8 percent.) Muñiz's support was insufficient to deny victory to Briscoe, but political analysts contend that Briscoe's margin was largely dependent on Hispanic voters in rural areas of south Texas who traditionally stuck with their Democratic nominees.

Grover's Catholicism was apparently not an issue with Texas voters. Had he been elected, he would have become the first and thus far only Catholic governor in Texas history. Many believed that Texas had supported Republican Herbert Hoover in 1928, because his opponent, Alfred E. Smith, was Catholic. Of course, Texas had voted in 1960 for John F. Kennedy, the nation's first and thus far only Catholic president.

[edit] On direction of GOP

Grover and Republican Senator John G. Tower disagreed over the focus of the GOP. Grover wanted the party to move in a populist direction to attract those who had previously favored Alabama Governor George C. Wallace for president and combine those otherwise traditionally Democratic voters with the Republican base, consisting mostly of fiscal conservatives. Tower, epitome of the elitist Republican faction, favored a more moderate approach to expand the party by attracting middle-of-the-roaders who stressed "good government" and those with economically conservative views. While Grover lost his race, Tower was a relatively easy winner over Democrat Harold "Barefoot" Sanders for a third term in the Senate. The Grover approach appeared to have been vindicated with the 1976 primary victory of former California Governor Ronald W. Reagan in the first ever Texas GOP presidential primary. Indeed, Grover supported Reagan in 1976 over Tower's choice, President Gerald R. Ford. Tower's approach was, however, consistent with the later successes in Texas of the two George Bushes. In his 1990 autobiography Consequences, Tower referred to Grover in only one paragraph: "Hank Grover won the gubernatorial nomination and, consistent with his style as an outspoken maverick, demanded the ouster of the [Republican] party chairman. Cooler heads prevailed, but the last thing I needed was a divided party."

[edit] 1984 U.S. Senate campaign

Tower announced in 1983 that he would not seek a fifth term in 1984. Grover, who had disagreed with Tower on many issues, therefore, entered the Republican primary held in May 1984. He fared poorly in that race. In the first primary, Republicans nominated Congressman William Philip Gramm of College Station, another convert to the GOP. Also seeking the 1984 Senate nomination were Robert Mosbacher, Jr., of Houston, son of a future U.S. secretary of commerce, and conservative-to-libertarian Congressman Ron Paul of the district southwest of Houston. Gramm in turn defeated the Democratic nominee, then State Senator and later Congressman Lloyd Doggett, and went on to serve three terms in the U.S. Senate.

[edit] Challenges Texas' "Johnson law"

Grover's reputation as a gadfly to the establishment surfaced again in 1995. As a private citizen, he sued the Texas Republican Party on the grounds that an elections rule, approved by the legislature in 1960, which permits a person to run for the White House and another office at the same time, is unconstitutional.

"It violates the spirit of representative government in the Texas Constitution," Grover said in his lawsuit, filed at 126th State District Court in Travis County.

The rule, named for Lyndon B. Johnson, allows a candidate to seek the presidency or the vice presidency and another office in the same election cycle. It was written in 1960 so that then U.S. Senator Johnson could run for re-election to the Senate as well as for president or vice president if he secured a national Democratic nomination. The Johnson rule was since used by former U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, who ran for reelection in 1988 and was also the Democratic nominee for vice president. Several other states, including Connecticut with Senator Joseph Lieberman in 2000, also permit presidential and vice presidential candidates to seek other offices at the same time, usually the U.S. Senate being the preferred choice.

Former Republican Senator Phil Gramm may have benefited from the rule as well had he won his party's presidential nomination in 1996, but he withdrew from the presidential race even before the New Hampshire primary. Grover's suit went no where: the Johnson rule remains in effect in Texas.

[edit] 1996 Republican Senate primary

Grover's filing of the suit could have been motivated too by his own decision to challenge Gramm for renomination in the 1996 Republican senatorial primary. Though he won the support of some Second Amendment groups, Grover finished last in the three-man primary, with just 72,400 votes (7.34 percent). David Young, who termed himself "more moderate" than Gramm, finished second with 75,463 (7.65 percent). Gramm polled 838,339 (85 percent). Gramm, a former college economics professor, then defeated the Democrat Victor Morales, like Grover a former school teacher, in the general election.

[edit] Political philosophy

The 1996 campaign offered a glimpse into Grover's later political views, largely compatible to those of former Republican presidential contender Patrick J. Buchanan. Grover proposed a $10-a-barrel oil import tax to, in his view, reduce American dependence on imported oil, raise revenue to cut the deficit, and provide an incentive for independent oil drillers to find new wells.

Grover proposed bringing home all American troops from Europe and placing them on the Mexican border from Brownsville to San Diego, California. He said that the military is needed to prevent illegal immigration and drug smuggling.

On abortion, Grover said, "I'm 100 percent pro-life." He said that abortion should be outlawed under all circumstances, even when the mother was raped: "As sad as those situations are, it's not that child's fault," he said. Speaking at Baylor University in Waco, Grover said that the most feminine thing a woman can do is give birth, adding that perhaps college-age women could not understand the full meaning of abortion.

Grover also said that he agreed with the 1996 government shutdowns, saying it was "the only time Congress has faced up to the fact that the nation is bankrupt." He applauded the freshmen Republicans in Congress (1995-1996) for not wavering and demanding that the government stop reckless spending.

[edit] Obituary

Until his death, Grover resided in Houston with his wife, Kathleen D. Grover, the mother of his three sons and three daughters. The Grovers married in 1952. Prior to entering politics, Grover had been a U.S. history teacher at Lamar High School in Houston. "He was a fantastic teacher. Many of his students now live all over the country, and they would attest to his effectiveness as a teacher," Mrs. Grover, a California native who grew up in Houston, said.

His oldest son, Bernard D. Grover, who also graduated from St. Thomas High School, is known for his activism with the Convention Pro-Continuation of 1861, a moderate group devoted to Texas independence using the federal courts, and Texas history and law.

Grover was a member of the Annunciation Catholic Church in Houston. He was cremated.

"My husband was not a politician. He was a statesman. His wonderful integrity worked against him in the political process," said Mrs. Grover. "I just try to put all the politics out of my mind," Mrs. Grover said.

[edit] Eulogy by eldest son

Grover's oldest son, Bernard Downey Grover, wrote an address that was entered into the Congressional Record by Ralph Hall, a Republican congressman from Rockwall County near Dallas.

An Address to Congress Assembled on this 28th day of November, Anno Domini 2005:

"To My Colleagues and Fellow Nationals,

"It is with grave heart that I announce to this august body the passing of a great man. Though his name may be unfamiliar to many here today, his legacy and influence have had a profound ripple on the history of this nation and of the great State of Texas.

"I speak of one Henry Cushing "Hank" Grover.

"My esteemed colleague Dr. Ron Paul will recognize the name, as do I, as would former members of this body, such as Charles Wilson, Bill Archer and Barbara Jordan, as well as former Texas Governor John Connally and former Senators Ralph Yarborough, John Tower, Phil Gramm, and Lloyd Bentsen.

"Hank Grover was a man of singular vision and integrity. Born of humble roots in Corpus Christi, Texas, and raised in San Antonio during the years of the Great Depression, Hank understood what it was to be modest and poor.

"The middle child of eight, he was raised with solid grounding in those values we as Americans hold dear. His mother was a German immigrant, and his father was descendant of Irish roots. Hank was a sixth generation Texan, whose family predated even the great Republic of Texas. His great-great grandfather was one Gideon Linscom, the first European doctor on Texas soil, whose studies of Kickapoo medicine are archived in the University of Texas library, and who received the crossed arrows from the Comanche and Lupan Apache. Gideon’s great-grandson teaches history at Sam Houston State University. Hank’s ancestor was a Minuteman in the Revolutionary War. His great uncle, William Davis Durham, fought at San Jacinto, making Texas a free Republic in 1836, in the most decisive battle in Western history. His great uncle Joel was a founder of Lawrence, Kansas, and ran an underground railroad out of his barn, freeing slaves during the War Between The States. Hank’s father was a childhood friend of Jesse James and Harry S Truman, in Independence, Missouri.

"In addition to this historical background, Hank studied history as an undergraduate at the University of St. Thomas, and received his master's degree from the University of Houston. He then began teaching history at Lamar High School in 1951. His students have, even to this day, remained enamored of his skill in making history not only interesting, but a living and vital part of every day life. Whenever Hank's children encounter one of his students, they are quick to express their admiration for the man who taught them to love and respect history.

"Hank had such a profound effect on his students that many entered public service, practicing as attorneys, judges and legislators. His students also encouraged him to run for office. He first stood for the Texas House in 1958, but was not elected until 1960. Subsequently, Hank served three terms as a Democrat in the Texas House. In 1965, he switched to the Republican party, a radical move in post-Reconstruction Texas, and won three more terms as the senator from District 15, the Montrose, in Houston.

"In 1972, Hank ran for governor of Texas against Dolph Briscoe. The Nixon administration rejected him because of his integrity, and they would not support his candidacy.

"Hank ran in a state that had not elected a Republican since Reconstruction. He defied all established power bases and funding sources and yet came within 100,000 votes of changing history; a mere 5 percent of the electorate in Texas. Hank eschewed a recount because he could not in good conscience ask the taxpayers to fund it.

"Though he was denied the honor himself, he established a constituency that ultimately elected Bill Clements the first Republican governor of Texas in the modern era. Hank was recognized as the largest private supporter in the effort to elect Ronald Reagan in 1980 (a "fat cat"), where he spent $65,000 of his own money to run ads in a number of Midwestern states (ads which he wrote himself arguing the case for Reagan). He furthered the cause of conservatism in the South more than it had achieved in over one hundred years. His efforts established the base that was ultimately exploited by the Bush family in Texas, Florida and ultimately in the Presidency of the United States.

"However, his was not a hollow conservatism. Hank believed in limited government and fiscal responsibility. He sought to limit federal power, expand state's rights and to rein in deficit spending. His was a moral and ethical view, grounded solidly in the history and culture of this great nation. His political protégé, Dr. Ron Paul, sits today in this Congress, as a testament to Hank's great sense of devotion to the libertarian instinct of every American.

"This man, Henry C. "Hank" Grover, has passed. His legacy is felt today in this very Congress assembled. Regardless of which side one sits across this aisle, we owe a debt of gratitude to a man of such influence and such integrity. His was not an influence of greed or fame. His was the influence of a man with a deep sense of History, of Law and a Love of the Land upon which we live. Hank would never have asked for our indulgence, either through largesse or appeasement. It was not his way to seek personal attention. What he sought was Justice and Truth in their purest forms for every Citizen of this nation.

"Justice is a value that he has passed on to his children: Bernard Downey, Bridget Cushing, Joseph Courtney (whose namesake has addressed this body), Hilary Helen, Laetitia Jane, and Patrick Fleming (who served on my [Hall's] staff).

"We also remember Hank’s wife of 56 years, Kathleen Downey Grover. It is her serene and erudite temperament that was the perfect compliment to Hank’s public life. It is her quiet support and perspicacious advice that directed his tireless efforts. Our gratitude is equally hers.

"I ask only that this body observe one minute of silence for the passing of such a man. May we all remain as mindful of our place in history, both what has passed and what we are creating, as Henry C. "Hank" Grover was. My gratitude, and that of his family, go with you."

[edit] References

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