Earle C. Clements, Ex-U.S. Senator, Dies

Earle C. Clements, former Democratic governor and U.S. senator who served as majority whip under Lyndon B. Johnson, has died at age 88.

Clements, who died in his sleep Tuesday night, also founded the Kentucky Democratic Party faction that has produced most of the state’s governors in the last 40 years.

He also was one of the leaders of Johnson’s unsuccessful presidential bid in 1960 who later helped persuade a bitter Johnson to accept John F. Kennedy’s offer of the vice presidential nomination.

Clements launched his political career in 1922 as deputy to his father, the Union County sheriff. When his father died three years later, Clements completed his unexpired term.

He was elected to the state Senate in 1941 and became majority floor leader.

“I never ran for anything with the idea that it was a steppingstone to a higher job,” Clements once said. “I always got accused of that, but those folks were wrong. You run for office because you want to represent all your people. And when you get that office, you devote all your time to it.”

Clements was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1944, was reelected in 1946 and became governor in 1947.

Lost in Eisenhower Landslide

He was elected to the U.S. Senate in November, 1950, replacing Garrett Withers, whom Clements had appointed to replace Alben Barkley when Barkley was elected vice president in 1948. Clements lost his reelection bid to Republican Thruston B. Morton in President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1956 landslide. Clements lost by 6,981 votes, that year’s closest Senate race.

Clements had been majority whip under Johnson when the Texan was Senate majority leader.

In 1960 Clements became the subject of an Internal Revenue Service investigation charging that he neglected to report that his assets had risen from $32,000 to $415,000 while he was governor and senator. The IRS sought back taxes of $291,000, but Clements settled in 1963 by paying $59,000.