From the Annals of the GOP –  In 1961, John Tower was elected as the first Republican senator from Texas since the days of Reconstruction.  It was Tower’s first elective office. Tower a professor at Midwestern University had run unsuccessfully for state representative in 1954 and worked to build the GOP in Texas.  By 1960, he was sufficiently well known to be nominated at the state Republican convention to run against Lyndon B. Johnson for senator – who was also on the national ticket as the Democratic candidate for Vice-President.  Tower’s campaign slogan was “double your pleasure, double your fun, vote against Johnson two times, not one.”  Johnson easily won the election but resigned his seat when he was also elected vice president. Tower entered a very crowded field of more than 60 candidates for the special election to replace Johnson. His main opposition was William Blakely of Dallas whom Price Daniel, Sr. had appointed to fill the vacancy left by Johnson’s resignation.  He led the first election with 31% of the vote and then won the runoff.   Tower was a mostly reliable conservative during his tenure.  His shameful votes against the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were likely popular in Texas.  But Tower did stray from the ranks of the hard-right when he supported Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan in 1976.  Tower resigned in 1985.  After his 24 year career in the Senate, President Ronald Reagan appointed him chief United States negotiator at the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks in Geneva. In 1986, Reagan appointed him to chair a commission to investigate the Iran-Contra affair. In 1989, President George Bush nominated him to become secretary of defense.  In an unusual move, the Senate rejected one of its on largely because of concerns over Tower’s alleged excessive drinking and womanizing.