William Vollie Alexander, Jr.

William Vollie “Bill” Alexander, Jr. (born January 16, 1934), is a retired politician who represented the U.S. state of Arkansas in the United States House of Representatives from 1969 to 1993, rising to the post of Chief Deputy Majority Whip.

Biography

Alexander was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and graduated from Osceola High School in Osceola, Arkansas, in 1951. He is an Eagle Scout. He attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and later earned a bachelor of arts degree from Rhodes College in Memphis in 1957. He earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1960.

He was elected as a Democrat from the 1st District of Arkansas in 1968 and was repeatedly re-elected until 1992, when he was denied party renomination by his former staff assistant and current Arkansas U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln.

Most of Alexander's earlier elections were won by at least 65 percent of the vote in a heavily Democratic district. In his first election, he defeated the Republican Guy Newcomb, also of Osceola, for the right to succeed the retiring Representative Ezekiel C. Gathings. In 1976, he defeated the farmer, seed merchant, and later Republican state chairman Harlan "Bo" Holleman of Wynne in Cross County. In 1982, he defeated the Republican Robert "Bob" Leslie, who became his state party chairman in 1983.

Alexander has lived in Virginia since 1993; however, he continues to vote via absentee ballot in Arkansas.

References

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