Charles T. Bernard

Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr.
Arkansas Republican Party State Chairman
In office 1971–1973
Preceded by	Odell Pollard
Succeeded by	Jim R. Caldwell
Personal details
Born	1927 Earle, Crittenden County Arkansas, USA
Political party	Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, 1968 1978
Children	Charles T. Bernard, Jr.
Occupation	Farmer; businessman
Bernard in 1968 made the strongest showing of any Republican nominee against Democratic U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright in Arkansas but barely reached 40 percent.

Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. (born 1927),^[1] is a former American politician and businessman from Earle in Crittenden County in eastern Arkansas, best known as the 1968 Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat held by long-time Democratic incumbent J. William Fulbright of Fayetteville.

Although Fulbright was comfortably re-elected, Bernard, the Republican state chairman from 1971–1973, was his strongest Republican opponent, for in all previous contests Fulbright had been returned to office unopposed or without significant opposition. In the primary, Fulbright had handily defeated James D. Johnson of Conway, a segregationist Democrat who had lost the 1966 gubernatorial general election to Republican Winthrop Rockefeller. Fulbright won his final election (He was defeated in the Democratic primary election by Dale Bumpers six years later.) with 59.2 percent against Bernard's 40.2 percent. Though Bernard lost his election, his ticket mate, Governor Rockefeller, scored a second two-year term by defeating the Democrat Marion H. Crank of Foreman in Little River County. Crank had earlier defeated Johnson's wife, Virginia Morris Johnson, in the Democratic gubernatorial runoff election.

Bernard won the state chairmanship to succeed Odell Pollard of Searcy in White County in balloting before the GOP State Committee held in Little Rock after Rockefeller's defeat for governor. He defeated Rockefeller's stated choice, William T. Kelly, Sr., of Little Rock, the Pulaski County chairman, and Everett Ham, a Rockefeller aide. The vote was 137 for Bernard, 28 for Kelly, and 27 for Ham. Ham won the vice chairmanship thereafter. John L. Ward, a Rockefeller biographer, said that Rockefeller's aides "felt like Bernard and the party had kicked Rockefeller's teeth in."^[2] Years later, Robert Faulkner, Rockefeller's executive secretary in 1970, said that Bernard's victory for the chairmanship showed that many of the pre-Rockefeller Republicans in Arkansas "couldn't wait to throw out the Rockefeller influence and pick their own, more conservative, traditional Republican."^[3]

Bernard operated One Hour Marvelizing dry cleaning establishments in eastern Arkansas.^[1]

See also

Arkansas portal

• United States Senate elections, 1968

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Bernard Family Crest". houseofnames.com. http://www.houseofnames.com/xq/asp.fc/qx/bernard-family-crest.htm. Retrieved December 4, 2009. 
2. ^ Cathy Kunzinger Urwin, Agenda for Reform: Winthrop Rockefeller as Governor of Arkansas, 1967-71 (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1991), p. 190, ISBN 1-55728-200-5
3. ^ Urwin, Agenda for Reform, p. 190

References

• Charles T. Bernard at The Political Graveyard

Party political offices
Preceded by None, 1966	Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Arkansas 1968 Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr.	Succeeded by Wayne H. Babbitt, 1972
Preceded by Odell Pollard	Arkansas Republican Party State Chairman Charles Taylor Bernard, Sr. 1971–1973	Succeeded by Jim R. Caldwell

Persondata
Name	Bernard, Charles T.
Alternative names
Short description	American politician
Date of birth	1927
Place of birth	Earle, Crittenden County Arkansas, USA
Date of death
Place of death