The Political Career of Al Gore’s Father

One of the few liberal Southern Democrats with a mixed legacy

From Thomas J. O’Halloran at the 1968 Democratic National Convention — Public Domain

Most people today know who Vice President Al Gore is, but people know less about his father, Al Gore Sr. — who was a Senator in Congress himself who built himself a reputation as a liberal with a lot of wonky views. According to Anthony J. Badger in Albert Gore Sr.: A Political Life, Gore would come from humble beginnings and then go onto become a very powerful politician.

Gore Sr. was raised in the Southern hill country in Granville, Tennessee in the early part of the 20th century, a part of the country without any electricity or indoor plumbing.

He would go on to represent Tennessee in the Senate for a very long time, between 1953 and 1970. According to Irvin Molotsky in Gore Sr.’s obituary, was “one of the few liberals among Southern Democrats.” In 1970, he would lose in a 1970 campaign against a Republican challenger who attacked him for supporting civil rights legislation, busing, and opposing the Vietnam War. It was around this time that Richard Nixon started to impose the “Southern Strategy” to turn the South voting Republican.

Gore Sr.’s background

Instead of going to a state university, he went to a local teacher’s college. He later attended…