Al Smith
42nd Governor of New York
In office January 1, 1923 – December 31, 1928
Lieutenant	George R. Lunn (1923–1924) Seymour Lowman (1925–1926) Edwin Corning (1926–1928)
Preceded by	Nathan L. Miller
Succeeded by	Franklin D. Roosevelt
In office January 1, 1919 – December 31, 1920
Lieutenant	Harry C. Walker
Preceded by	Charles S. Whitman
Succeeded by	Nathan L. Miller
8th President of the New York City Board of Aldermen
In office January 1, 1917 – December 31, 1918
Preceded by	Frank L. Dowling
Succeeded by	Robert L. Moran
Personal details
Born	Alfred Emanuel Smith. (1873-12-30)December 30, 1873 Manhattan, New York City
Died	October 4, 1944(1944-10-04) (aged 70) New York City
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Catherine Ann Dunn
Children	5
Residence	Manhattan, New York City
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Alfred Emanuel "Al" Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928. He was the foremost urban leader of the efficiency-oriented Progressive Movement, and was noted for achieving a wide range of reforms as governor in the 1920s. He was also linked to the notorious Tammany Hall machine that controlled Manhattan politics; he was a strong opponent of prohibition.

As a committed "wet" (anti-Prohibition candidate), he attracted millions of voters of all backgrounds, particularly those concerned about the corruption and lawlessness brought about by the Eighteenth Amendment.^[1] However he was unpopular among certain segments, including Southern Baptists and German Lutherans, who believed the Catholic Church and the Pope would dictate his policies. Most importantly, this was a time of national prosperity under a Republican Presidency, and Smith lost in a landslide to Republican Herbert Hoover. Smith attempted the 1932 nomination, but was defeated by his former ally and successor as New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt. Smith entered business in New York City, and became an increasingly vocal opponent of Roosevelt's New Deal.

Early life[link]

Smith was born and raised in the fourth ward on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and it was here he would spend his entire life.^[2] His mother Catherine Mulvihill's parents, Maria Marsh and Thomas Mulvihill, were from County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland,^[3] and his father, Alfred E. Smith, was the son of Italian-German^[4] immigrants. Al was their first son. His father, a widower with a daughter, served with the 11th New York Fire Zouaves in the opening months of the Civil War.

Al Smith grew up in the Gilded Age as New York itself matured. The Brooklyn Bridge was being constructed nearby. "The Brooklyn Bridge and I grew up together," Smith would later recall.^[5] His four grandparents were Irish, German, Italian and Anglo-Irish,^[6] but Smith identified with the Irish American community and became its leading spokesman in the 1920s.

His father Alfred, a Civil War veteran who owned a small trucking firm, died when the boy was 13; at 14 he had to drop out of St. James parochial school to help support the family. He never attended high school or college, and claimed he learned about people by studying them at the Fulton Fish Market, where he worked for $12 per week. He became a notable speaker. On May 6, 1900, Al Smith married Catherine Ann Dunn, with whom he had five children.^[7]

Political career[link]

In his political career, Smith traded on his working-class beginnings, identifying himself with immigrants and campaigning as a man of the people. Although indebted to the Tammany Hall political machine, particularly to its boss, "Silent" Charlie Murphy, he remained untarnished by corruption and worked for the passage of progressive legislation.^[7]

Smith's first political job was in 1895 as clerk in the office of the Commissioner of Jurors. In 1903 he was elected to the New York State Assembly. He served as vice chairman of the commission appointed to investigate factory conditions after 146 workers died in the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Smith crusaded against dangerous and unhealthy workplace conditions and championed corrective legislation.^[8]

In 1911 the Democrats obtained a majority of seats in the State Assembly. Smith became chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. In 1912, following the loss of the majority, he became the minority leader. When the Democrats reclaimed the majority in the next election, he was elected Speaker for the 1913 session. He became minority leader again in 1914 when the Republicans reclaimed the majority, and remained in that position until 1915, when he was elected sheriff of New York County. By now he was a leader of the Progressive movement in New York City and state. His campaign manager and top aide was Belle Moskowitz, a daughter of Prussian-Jewish immigrants.^[7]

Al Smith with his wife.

After serving in the patronage-rich job of sheriff of New York County, Smith was elected President of the Board of Aldermen of the City of New York in 1917. Smith was elected Governor of New York in 1918 with the help of Murphy and James A. Farley, who brought Smith the upstate vote. Smith is sometimes erroneously said to have been the first Irish-American elected governor of a state. There had been many, Catholics included, in other states, e.g. Edward Kavanagh of Maine. Nor was Smith the first Catholic to govern New York. Lord Thomas Dongan had governed the Province of New York in the 1680s, and Martin H. Glynn served from 1913–1914 after Governor William Sulzer was impeached.

In 1919, Smith gave the famous speech, "A man as low and mean as I can picture",^[9] making an irreparable break with William Randolph Hearst. Newspaperman Hearst, known for his notoriously sensationalist and largely (except on some economic matters) right-wing newspaper empire, was the leader of the populist wing of the Democratic Party in the city, and had combined with Tammany Hall in electing the local administration. Hearst had attacked Smith for starving children by not reducing the cost of milk.^[10]

Smith lost his bid for re-election in 1920, but was again elected governor in 1922, 1924 and 1926 with James A. Farley managing his campaign. As Governor, Smith became known nationally as a progressive who sought to make government more efficient and more effective in meeting social needs. Smith's young assistant Robert Moses built the nation's first state park system and reformed the civil service, later gaining appointment as Secretary of State of New York. During Smith's term New York strengthened laws governing workers' compensation, women's pensions, and children and women's labor with the help of Frances Perkins, soon to be President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Labor Secretary.

At the 1924 Democratic National Convention, Smith unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president, advancing the cause of civil liberty by decrying lynching and racial violence. Roosevelt made the nominating speech in which he saluted Smith as "the Happy Warrior of the political battlefield".^[7] Smith represented the urban, east coast wing of the party, while his main rival for the nomination, California Senator William Gibbs McAdoo, stood for the more rural tradition. The party was hopelessly split between the two and an increasingly chaotic convention balloted 100 times before both accepted they would not be able to win the two-thirds majority required to win, and so withdrew. The exhausted party then nominated the little-known John Davis of West Virginia. Davis went on to lose the election by a landslide to the Republican Calvin Coolidge. Undeterred, Smith fought a determined campaign for the party's nomination in 1928.

1928 election[link]

Al Smith giving a speech.

It was reporter Frederick William Wile who made the oft-repeated observation that Smith was defeated by "the three P's: Prohibition, Prejudice and Prosperity".^[11] The Republican Party was still benefitting from a economic boom and a failure to reapportion congress and the electoral college with the results of the 1920 census which registered a 15 percent increase in the urban population. Their presidential candidate Herbert Hoover did little to alter these events.

The Republican Party was benefitting from a economic boom and historians agree that the prosperity along with anti-Catholic sentiment made Hoover's election inevitable.^[12] He defeated Smith by a landslide in the 1928 election.

Smith’s Catholic beliefs played a key role in his loss of the election of 1928. Many feared that he would answer to the pope and not the constitution. His close association with Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine in New York, opened the issue of tolerating corruption in government.^[13] Another major controversial issue was the continuation of Prohibition. Smith was personally in favor of relaxation or repeal of Prohibition laws despite its status as part of the nation's Constitution, but the Democratic Party split north and south on the issue. During the campaign Smith tried to duck the issue with noncommittal statements.^[14]

Smith was an articulate exponent of good government and efficiency, as was Hoover. Smith swept the entire Catholic vote, which had been split in 1920 and 1924, and brought millions of Catholics to the polls for the first time, especially women. He lost important Democratic constituencies in the rural north and in southern cities and suburbs. He did carry the Deep South, thanks in part to his running mate, Senator Joseph Robinson from Arkansas, and he carried the ten most populous cities in the United States. Some of Smith's losses can be attributed to fear that as president, Smith would answer to the Pope rather than to the Constitution, to fears of the power of New York City, to distaste for the long history of corruption associated with Tammany Hall, as well as to Smith's own mediocre campaigning. Smith's campaign theme song, "The Sidewalks of New York", was not likely to appeal to rural folks, and his city accent on the "raddio" seemed slightly foreign. Although Smith lost New York state, his fellow Democrat Roosevelt was elected to replace him as governor of New York.^[15] James A. Farley left Smith's camp to run Franklin D. Roosevelt's successful campaign for Governor, and later Roosevelt's successful campaigns for the Presidency in 1932 and 1936.

Voter realignment[link]

Some political scientists believe that the 1928 election started a voter realignment that helped develop the New Deal coalition of Franklin D. Roosevelt.^[16] As one political scientist explains, "...not until 1928, with the nomination of Al Smith, a northeastern reformer, did Democrats make gains among the urban, blue-collar, and Catholic voters who were later to become core components of the New Deal coalition and break the pattern of minimal class polarization that had characterized the Fourth Party System."^[17] However, Allan Lichtman's quantitative analysis suggests that the 1928 results were based largely on religion and are not a useful barometer of the voting patterns of the New Deal era.^[18]

Finan (2003) says Smith is an underestimated symbol of the changing nature of American politics in the first half of the last century. He represented the rising ambitions of urban, industrial America at a time when the hegemony of rural, agrarian America was in decline. He was connected to the hopes and aspirations of immigrants, especially Catholics and Jews. Smith was a devout Catholic, but his struggles against religious bigotry were often misinterpreted when he fought the religiously inspired Protestant morality imposed by prohibitionists.

Opposition to Roosevelt and the New Deal[link]

Smith felt slighted by Roosevelt during the latter's governorship. They became rivals for the 1932 Democratic presidential nomination. At the convention, Smith's animosity toward Roosevelt was so great, he put aside longstanding rivalries and managed to work with William McAdoo and William Randolph Hearst to try to block FDR's nomination for several ballots. This unlikely coalition fell apart when Smith refused to work on finding a compromise candidate, and instead maneuvered to make himself the nominee. After losing the nomination, Smith eventually campaigned for Roosevelt in 1932, giving a particularly important speech on behalf of the Democratic nominee at Boston on October 27 in which he "pulled out all the stops."^[19]

Smith became highly critical of Roosevelt's New Deal policies and joined the American Liberty League, an anti-Roosevelt group. Smith believed the New Deal was a betrayal of good-government Progressive ideals, and ran counter to the goal of close cooperation with business. The Liberty League was an organization that tried to rally public opinion against Roosevelt's New Deal. Conservative Democrats who disapproved of Roosevelt's New Deal measures founded the group. In 1934, Smith joined forces with wealthy business executives, who provided most of the league's funds. The league published pamphlets and sponsored radio programs, arguing that the New Deal was destroying personal liberty. However, the league failed to gain support in the 1934 and 1936 elections, and it rapidly declined in influence. The league was officially dissolved in 1940.^[20]

Smith's antipathy to Roosevelt and his policies was so great that he supported Republican presidential candidates Alfred M. Landon (in the 1936 election) and Wendell Willkie (in the 1940 election).^[7] Although personal resentment was one motivating factor in Smith's break with Roosevelt and the New Deal, Smith was consistent in his beliefs and politics. Finan (2003) argues Smith always believed in social mobility, economic opportunity, religious tolerance, and individualism. Strangely enough, Smith and Eleanor Roosevelt remained close. In 1936, while Smith was in Washington making a vehement radio attack on the President, she invited him to stay at the White House. To avoid embarrassing the Roosevelts, he declined.

Business life and later years[link]

Smith golfing with baseball great Babe Ruth in Coral Gables, Florida (1930) – State Archive of Florida

After the 1928 election, Smith became the president of Empire State, Inc., the corporation which built and operated the Empire State Building. Construction for the building was commenced symbolically on March 17, 1930, per Smith's instructions. Smith's grandchildren cut the ribbon when the world's tallest skyscraper—built in only 13 months—opened on May 1, 1931--May Day. As with the Brooklyn Bridge, which Smith witnessed being built from his Lower East Side boyhood home, the Empire State Building was a vision and an achievement constructed by combining the interests of all rather than being divided by interests of a few.

Smith was elected as President of the Board of Trustees of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, in 1929.^[21]

Like most New York City businessmen, Smith enthusiastically supported World War II, but was not asked by Roosevelt to play any role in the war effort.^[7]

In 1939 he was appointed a Papal Chamberlain of the Sword and Cape, one of the highest honors the Papacy bestowed on a layman, which today is styled a Gentleman of His Holiness.

Smith died at the Rockefeller Institute Hospital on October 4, 1944 of a heart attack, at the age of 70, broken-hearted over the death of his wife from cancer five months earlier, on May 4, 1944.^[22] He is interred at Calvary Cemetery.^[23]

Namesake[link]

• Alfred E. Smith Building, a 1928 skyscraper in Albany, New York
• Governor Alfred E. Smith Houses, a public housing development in Lower Manhattan, near his birthplace
• Governor Alfred E. Smith Park, a playground in the Two Bridges neighborhood in Manhattan, near his birthplace
• Governor Alfred E. Smith, a former front line and current reserve fireboat in the New York City Fire Department fleet.
• Governor Alfred E. Smith Sunken Meadow State Park, a state park on Long Island
• Alfred E. Smith Recreation Center, a youth activity center in the Two Bridges neighborhood, Manhattan.
• PS 163 Alfred E. Smith School, a school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan
• PS 1 Alfred E. Smith School, a school in Manhattan's Chinatown.
• Alfred E. Smith Career and Technical Education High School in the South Bronx.
• Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner, a fundraiser held for Catholic Charities and a stop on the presidential campaign trail
• Smith Hall, a residence hall at Hinman College, SUNY Binghamton.
• Camp Smith, a State owned military installation of the New York Army National Guard in Cortlandt Manor near Peekskill, NY, about 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City, at the northern border of Westchester County, and consists of 1,900 acres (7.7 km²).
• Alfred E. Smith IV, former member of the New York Stock Exchange, philanthropist, Chairman of the Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center

Electoral history[link]

United States presidential election, 1928[link]

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1928 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 28, 2005).

Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 28, 2005).

New York gubernatorial elections, 1918–1926[link]

Note: This was the last time the running mate of the elected governor was defeated, Democrat Smith having Republican Lowman as lieutenant for the duration of this term.

• List of candidates, (.pdf) in The New York Times of September 13, 1920

Notes:

• This was the first time women voted for governor of New York, and Alfred E. Smith was the first governor elected with more than 1 million votes. However given the much-expanded electorate, his historic total won him only a plurality of votes.
• For comparison, in the New York Gubernatorial Election of 1916, Charles S. Whitman (whom Smith defeated in 1918) had won a 52.63% majority with only 850,020 votes.
• The total ballots cast for governor was 2,192,970. Besides the votes for the above candidates, there were 43,630 blank votes, 16,892 spoilt votes, and 530 scattering votes.^[24]

In fiction and film[link]

• In Harry Turtledove's alternate history Southern Victory Series, in which the Confederate States of America wins the American Civil War, Al Smith becomes the third Socialist President of the United States in 1936. In 1941, during his second term, the Confederacy invades the US, starting World War II. Smith is killed by a Confederate bomber in 1942 in his bunker in Philadelphia, then functioning as the nation's capitol.
• Smith and Franklin D. Roosevelt were filmed by Lee DeForest in his DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process during the 1924 Democratic Convention, which ran from June 21 to July 9. This film is now in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress.
• In a flashback scene in Frank Capra's 1946 classic movie It's a Wonderful Life, the character of Bert can be seen with a newspaper whose front page headline reads "Smith Wins Nomination."
• Smith was portrayed by Alan Bunce in the 1960 film Sunrise at Campobello.
• Smith is featured in several chapters of Michael Chabon's 2000 novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, in his role as "President" of the Empire State Building.

See also[link]

• List of people on the cover of Time Magazine: 1920s
• Business Plot
• Alfred E. Smith IV

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Bornet, Vaughn Davis; Labor Politics in a Democratic Republic: Moderation, Division, and Disruption in the Presidential Election of 1928 (1964) online edition
• Douglas B. Craig. After Wilson: The Struggle for Control of the Democratic Party, 1920–1934 (1992)online edition see Chap. 6 "The Problem of Al Smith" and Chap. 8 "'Wall Street Likes Al Smith': The Election of 1928"
• Degler, Carl N. (1964). "American Political Parties and the Rise of the City: An Interpretation". Journal of American History 51 (1): 41–59. DOI:10.2307/1917933. JSTOR 1917933. 
• DeGregorio, William A. (1984). The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents. Dembner Books. 
• Eldot, Paula (1983). Governor Alfred E. Smith: The Politician as Reformer. Garland. ISBN 0-8240-4855-5. 
• Finan, Christopher M. (2003). Alfred E. Smith: The Happy Warrior. Hill and Wang. ISBN 0-8090-3033-0. 
• Hostetler, Michael J. (1998). "Gov. Al Smith Confronts the Catholic Question: The Rhetorical Legacy of the 1928 Campaign". Communication Quarterly 46. 
• Josephson, Matthew and Hannah (1969). Al Smith: Hero of the Cities. Houghton Mifflin. 

• Lawrence, David G. (1996). The Collapse of the Democratic Presidential Majority: Realignment, Dealignment, and Electoral Change from Franklin Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-8984-4. 

• Lichtman, Allan J. (1979). Prejudice and the old politics: The Presidential election of 1928. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0-8078-1358-3. OCLC 4492475. 
• Lichtman, Allan (1976). "Critical Election Theory and the Reality of American Presidential Politics, 1916–40". The American Historical Review 81 (2): 317–351. DOI:10.2307/1851173. JSTOR 1851173. 
• Carter, Paul A.; Lichtman, Allan J. (1980). "Deja Vu; Or, Back to the Drawing Board with Alfred E. Smith". Reviews in American History 8 (2): 272–276. DOI:10.2307/2701129. JSTOR 2701129. ; review of Lichtman
• Moore, Edmund A. (1956). A Catholic Runs for President: The Campaign of 1928. OCLC 475746.  online edition
• Neal, Donn C. (1983). The World beyond the Hudson: Alfred E. Smith and National Politics, 1918–1928. New York: Garland. p. 308. ISBN 978-0-8240-5658-2. 
• Neal, Donn C. (1984). "What If Al Smith Had Been Elected?". Presidential Studies Quarterly 14 (2): 242–248. 
• Perry, Elisabeth Israels (1987). Belle Moskowitz: Feminine Politics and the Exercise of Power in the Age of Alfred E. Smith. Oxford University Press. p. 280. ISBN 0-19-504426-6. 
• Daniel F. Rulli; "Campaigning in 1928: Chickens in Pots and Cars in Backyards," Teaching History: A Journal of Methods, Vol. 31#1 pp 42+ (2006) online version with lesson plans for class
• Slayton, Robert A. (2001). Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith. Free Press. p. 480. ISBN 978-0-684-86302-3. , the standard scholarly biography
• Sweeney, James R. “Rum, Romanism, and Virginia Democrats: The Party Leaders and the Campaign of 1928.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90 (October 1982): 403–31.

Primary sources[link]

• Smith, Alfred, E. (1929). Campaign addresses of Governor Alfred E. Smith, Democratic Candidate for President 1928. Washington, D.C.: Democratic National Committee. ISBN 0-404-06117-6. OCLC 300555. 
• Alfred E. Smith. Progressive Democracy: Addresses & State Papers. (1928) online edition

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Al Smith

• Al Smith Grave
• "Alfred E. Smith Dies Here at 70; 4 Times Governor". The New York Times. October 4, 1944. http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/1230.html. 
• "Happy Warrior Playground". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=10772. 
• "Governor Alfred E. Smith Park". New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. http://www.nycgovparks.org/sub_your_park/historical_signs/hs_historical_sign.php?id=6453. 
• "Al Smith". Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site. http://www.nps.gov/elro/glossary/smith-al.htm. 
• Murphy, Kevin C.. "Lost Warrior: Al Smith and the Fall of Tammany". http://www.kevincmurphy.com/alsmith.htm. 

• A film clip "Al Smith Hails End of Dry Law, 1933/11/13 (1933)" is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]
• Booknotes interview with Robert Slayton on Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith, May 13, 2001.
• "Al Smith, Presidential Contender" from C-SPAN's The Contenders

v t e Governors and Lieutenant Governors of New York Governors G. Clinton Jay G. Clinton Lewis Tompkins Tayler D. Clinton Yates D. Clinton Pitcher Van Buren Throop Marcy Seward Bouck Wright Young Fish Hunt Seymour Clark King Morgan Seymour Fenton Hoffman J. Adams Dix Tilden Robinson Cornell Cleveland Hill Flower Morton Black T. Roosevelt Odell Higgins Hughes White J. Alden Dix Sulzer Glynn Whitman Smith Miller Smith F. Roosevelt Lehman Poletti Dewey Harriman Rockefeller Wilson Carey M. Cuomo Pataki Spitzer Paterson A. Cuomo Lieutenant Governors Van Cortlandt S. Van Rensselaer J. Van Rensselaer Broome Tayler Clinton Tayler Swift Tayler Root Tallmadge Pitcher P. Livingston Dayan Throop Stebbins Oliver E. Livingston Tracy Bradish Dickinson Gardiner Lester Fish Patterson Church Raymond Selden Campbell Floyd-Jones Alvord Woodford Beach Robinson Dorsheimer Hoskins Hill McCarthy Jones Sheehan Saxton Woodruff Higgins Bruce Raines Chanler White Cobb Conway Glynn Wagner Schoeneck Walker Wood Lusk Lunn Lowman Corning Lehman Bray Poletti Hanley Wallace Hanley Moore Wicks Mahoney DeLuca Wilson Anderson Krupsak Cuomo DelBello Anderson Lundine McCaughey Donohue Paterson Bruno Skelos Smith Espada Ravitch Smith Ravitch Duffy Italics indicate acting officeholders

John McCain
United States Senator from Arizona
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 1987 Serving with Jon Kyl
Preceded by	Barry Goldwater
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona's 1st district
In office January 3, 1983 – January 3, 1987
Preceded by	John Jacob Rhodes Jr.
Succeeded by	John Jacob Rhodes III
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs
In office January 3, 1995 – January 3, 1997
Preceded by	Daniel Inouye
Succeeded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
In office January 3, 2005 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Ben Nighthorse Campbell
Succeeded by	Byron Dorgan
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
In office January 3, 1997 – January 3, 2001
Preceded by	Larry Pressler
Succeeded by	Ernest Hollings
In office January 20, 2001 – June 3, 2001
Preceded by	Ernest Hollings
Succeeded by	Ernest Hollings
In office January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by	Ernest Hollings
Succeeded by	Ted Stevens
Personal details
Born	John Sidney McCain III (1936-08-29) August 29, 1936 (age 75) Coco Solo Naval Air Station, Panama Canal Zone
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Carol Shepp (m. 1965, div. 1980) Cindy Lou Hensley (m. 1980 - present)
Relations	John S. McCain, Jr. (father, deceased) Roberta McCain (mother)
Children	Douglas (b. 1959, adopted 1966) Andrew (b. 1962, adopted 1966) Sidney (b. 1966) Meghan (b. 1984) John Sidney IV "Jack" (b. 1986) James "Jimmy" (b. 1988) Bridget (b. 1991, adopted 1993)
Residence	Phoenix, Arizona
Alma mater	U.S. Naval Academy (B.S.)
Profession	Naval Aviator, politician
Religion	Baptist congregant (Brought up Episcopalian)[1]
Signature
Website	www.mccain.senate.gov
Military service
Service/branch	United States Navy
Years of service	1958–1981
Rank	Captain
Battles/wars	Vietnam War
This article is part of a series about The life of John McCain Early life and military career House and Senate career, until 2000 2000 presidential campaign Senate career, 2001–present 2008 presidential campaign Cultural and political image Political positions

In 1951 at left, with mother Roberta, brother Joe, and father John S. McCain, Jr.
In 1951 at left, with mother Roberta, brother Joe, and father John S. McCain, Jr.		In 1954 at the Naval Academy

John Sidney McCain III (born August 29, 1936) is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States election.

McCain followed his father and grandfather, both four-star admirals, into the United States Navy, graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1958. He became a naval aviator, flying ground-attack aircraft from aircraft carriers. During the Vietnam War, he was almost killed in the 1967 USS Forrestal fire. In October 1967, while on a bombing mission over Hanoi, he was shot down, seriously injured, and captured by the North Vietnamese. He was a prisoner of war until 1973. McCain experienced episodes of torture, and refused an out-of-sequence early repatriation offer. His war wounds left him with lifelong physical limitations.

He retired from the Navy as a captain in 1981 and moved to Arizona, where he entered politics. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, he served two terms, and was then elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, winning re-election easily four times, most recently in 2010. While generally adhering to conservative principles, McCain at times has had a media reputation as a "maverick" for his willingness to disagree with his party on certain issues. After being investigated and largely exonerated in a political influence scandal of the 1980s as a member of the Keating Five, he made campaign finance reform one of his signature concerns, which eventually led to the passage of the McCain-Feingold Act in 2002. He is also known for his work towards restoring diplomatic relations with Vietnam in the 1990s, and for his belief that the war in Iraq should be fought to a successful conclusion. McCain has chaired the Senate Commerce Committee, opposed spending that he considered to be pork barrel, and played a key role in alleviating a crisis over judicial nominations.

McCain ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000 but lost a heated primary season contest to George W. Bush. He secured the nomination in 2008 after coming back from early reversals, but lost to Democratic candidate Barack Obama in the general election. He subsequently adopted more orthodox conservative stances and attitudes and largely opposed actions of the Obama administration.

Early life and military career, 1936–1981[link]

Formative years and education[link]

John McCain was born on August 29, 1936, at Coco Solo Naval Air Station in the Panama Canal Zone, to naval officer John S. McCain, Jr. (1911–1981) and Roberta (Wright) McCain (b. 1912).^[2] At that time, the Panama Canal was under U.S. control.^[3]

McCain's family tree includes Scots-Irish and English ancestors.^[4] His father and his paternal grandfather, John S. McCain, Sr., both became four-star United States Navy admirals.^[5] His family, including his older sister Sandy and younger brother Joe,^[2] followed his father to various naval postings in the United States and the Pacific.^[6] Altogether, he attended about 20 schools.^[7]

In 1951, the family settled in Northern Virginia, and McCain attended Episcopal High School, a private preparatory boarding school in Alexandria.^[8] He excelled at wrestling and graduated in 1954.^[9]

Following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, McCain entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There, he was a friend and informal leader for many of his classmates,^[10] and sometimes stood up for targets of bullying.^[5] He also became a lightweight boxer.^[11] McCain came into conflict with higher-ranking personnel, and he did not always obey the rules, which contributed to a low class rank (894 of 899), despite a high IQ.^[10][12] He did well in academic subjects that interested him, such as literature and history, but studied only enough to pass subjects he struggled with, such as mathematics.^[5][13] McCain graduated in 1958.^[10]

Naval training, first marriage, and Vietnam assignment[link]

John McCain's early military career began when he was commissioned an ensign and started two and a half years of training at Pensacola to become a naval aviator.^[14] While there, he earned a reputation as a partying man.^[7] He completed flight school in 1960, and became a naval pilot of ground-attack aircraft, assigned to A-1 Skyraider squadrons^[15] aboard the aircraft carriers USS Intrepid and USS Enterprise^[16] in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas.^[17] McCain began as a sub-par flier^[17] who was at times careless and reckless;^[18] during the early-to-mid 1960s, the planes he was flying crashed twice and once collided with power lines, but he received no major injuries.^[18] His aviation skills improved over time,^[17] and he was seen as a good pilot, albeit one who tended to "push the envelope" in his flying.^[18]

On July 3, 1965, McCain married Carol Shepp, a model originally from Philadelphia.^[19] McCain adopted her two young children Douglas and Andrew.^[16][20] He and Carol then had a daughter named Sidney.^[21][22]

McCain requested a combat assignment,^[23] and was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal flying A-4 Skyhawks.^[24] His combat duty began when he was 30 years old, in mid-1967, when Forrestal was assigned to a bombing campaign, Operation Rolling Thunder, during the Vietnam War.^[19][25] McCain and his fellow pilots became frustrated by micromanagement from Washington, and he would later write that "In all candor, we thought our civilian commanders were complete idiots who didn't have the least notion of what it took to win the war."^[25][26]

On July 29, 1967, McCain, by then a lieutenant commander, was near the center of the Forrestal fire. He escaped from his burning jet and was trying to help another pilot escape when a bomb exploded;^[27] McCain was struck in the legs and chest by fragments.^[28] The ensuing fire killed 134 sailors and took 24 hours to control.^[29][30] With the Forrestal out of commission, McCain volunteered for assignment with the USS Oriskany, another aircraft carrier employed in Operation Rolling Thunder.^[31] Once there, he would be awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and the Bronze Star for missions flown over North Vietnam.^[32]

Prisoner of war[link]

John McCain's capture and subsequent imprisonment began on October 26, 1967. He was flying his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam when his A-4E Skyhawk was shot down by a missile over Hanoi.^[33][34] McCain fractured both arms and a leg ejecting from the aircraft,^[35] and nearly drowned when he parachuted into Truc Bach Lake.^[33] Some North Vietnamese pulled him ashore, then others crushed his shoulder with a rifle butt and bayoneted him.^[33] McCain was then transported to Hanoi's main Hoa Lo Prison, nicknamed the "Hanoi Hilton".^[34]

Although McCain was badly wounded, his captors refused to treat his injuries, beating and interrogating him to get information; he was given medical care only when the North Vietnamese discovered that his father was a top admiral.^[36] His status as a prisoner of war (POW) made the front pages of major newspapers.^[37][38]

McCain spent six weeks in the hospital while receiving marginal care.^[33] By then having lost 50 pounds (23 kg), in a chest cast, and with his hair turned white,^[33] McCain was sent to a different camp on the outskirts of Hanoi^[39] in December 1967, into a cell with two other Americans who did not expect him to live a week.^[40] In March 1968, McCain was put into solitary confinement, where he would remain for two years.^[41]

In mid-1968, John S. McCain, Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theater, and the North Vietnamese offered McCain early release^[43] because they wanted to appear merciful for propaganda purposes,^[44] and also to show other POWs that elite prisoners were willing to be treated preferentially.^[43] McCain turned down the offer; he would only accept repatriation if every man taken in before him was released as well. Such early release was prohibited by the POW's interpretation of the military Code of Conduct: To prevent the enemy from using prisoners for propaganda, officers were to agree to be released in the order in which they were captured.^[33]

In August 1968, a program of severe torture began on McCain.^[45] He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery.^[33][45] Further injuries led to the beginning of a suicide attempt, stopped by guards.^[33] Eventually, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession".^[33] He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he later wrote, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine."^[46][47] Many American POWs were tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements;^[48] virtually all of them eventually yielded something to their captors.^[49] McCain subsequently received two to three beatings weekly because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements.^[50]