- Carl Curtis
Infobox Senator | name=Carl Curtis
jr/sr=United States Senator
state=Nebraska
party=Republican
term_start=January 1 ,1955
term_end=January 3 ,1979
preceded=Hazel Abel
succeeded=J. James Exon
date of birth=birth date|1905|3|15|mf=y
place of birth=Minden, Nebraska
dead=
date of death=death date and age|2000|1|24|1905|3|15
place of death=Lincoln, Nebraska
spouse=
religion=Carl Thomas Curtis (
March 15 ,1905 –January 24 ,2000 ) was an American politician from theU.S. state ofNebraska . He served as a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives (1939-1954) and later the Senate (1954-1979).Curtis was born on his family's farm in Kearney County. He attended public schools and later attended
Nebraska Wesleyan University , where he was a member ofTheta Chi . He studied law on his own and passed the bar exam. He began practicing law in Kearney County and served as the county attorney from 1931 to 1934.Curtis was elected to the House of Representatives in 1938 on an anti-
Franklin D. Roosevelt andNew Deal platform. He served in the House from 1939 until 1954, being reelected every two years. Curtis ran for the Senate from Nebraska in 1954 and won the election; he was reelected three more times to six-year times, serving from 1955 to 1979. He voted for theCivil Rights Act of 1964 . Curtis was loyal to the Republican Party, particularly supporting its anti-communist stances and fiscalconservatism , which included opposition to social programs such the New Deal andLyndon B. Johnson 'sGreat Society .Curtis was a close ally of both
Barry Goldwater andRichard Nixon . He served as floor leader during the1964 Republican National Convention , when Goldwater won the nomination.He supported Nixon's
Vietnam War escalation policy and remained loyal to him even during the height of theWatergate scandals, when Nixon was forced to resign as President. Curtis served as chairman of theSenate Republican Conference from 1975 to 1979.Following his retirement, Curtis moved to Lincoln, where he practiced law, served as an officer of conservative lobby
American Freedom Coalition , and gave occasional interviews to the media. Following his death, he was praised on the Senate floor in a speech delivered byStrom Thurmond , a contemporary of Curtis's who was also elected to the Senate in 1954.External links
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