Vance Hartke#Senate service and later life

{{Infobox officeholder

|birthname=Rupert Vance Hartke

|image name= Senator Vance Hartke.jpg

|caption= Hartke in 1958

|jr/sr=United States Senator

|state=Indiana

|party=Democratic

|term_start=January 3, 1959

|term_end=January 3, 1977

|preceded=William E. Jenner

|succeeded=Richard Lugar

|order2=Chair of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs

|term_start2=January 3, 1971

|term_end2=January 3, 1977

|predecessor2= Office created

|successor2=Alan Cranston

|order3=Mayor of Evansville, Indiana

|term_start3=1956

|term_end3=1958

|predecessor3=Henry O. Roberts

|successor3=J. William Davidson

|birth_date={{birth date|1919|5|31}}

|birth_place=Stendal, Indiana, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|2003|7|27|1919|5|31}}

|death_place=Fairfax, Virginia, U.S.

|resting_place=Arlington National Cemetery

|spouse=Martha Hartke

|children=7

|alma_mater=University of Evansville
Indiana University School of Law - Bloomington

|profession=Attorney

|branch=United States Navy
United States Coast Guard

|serviceyears=1942–1946

|battles=World War II

|rank=Lieutenant

}}

Rupert Vance Hartke (May 31, 1919{{spaced ndash}}July 27, 2003) was an American politician who served as a Democratic United States Senator from Indiana from 1959 until 1977. Hartke was elected to the Senate after serving as the mayor of Evansville, Indiana. In the Senate, he supported the Great Society and became a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War. Hartke ran for president in the 1972 Democratic primaries but withdrew after the first set of primaries. He left the Senate after losing his 1976 reelection campaign to Richard Lugar.

Early life, education, military service

Hartke was born on May 31, 1919, in Stendal, Indiana, the son of Ida Mary (Egbert), an organist, and Hugo Leonard Hartke, a teacher.{{cite web| url = http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-2875000130/hartke-rupert-vance.html| title = Hartke, Rupert Vance {{!}} Encyclopedia.com}} His paternal grandparents were German, as were all of his maternal great-grandparents.{{cite web |title=Senator Rupert Vance Hartke (b. May 31, 1919, d. July 27, 2003) |url=https://www.genealogy.com/ftm/g/a/r/Richard-H-Garcia-Maryland/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0003.html |website=genealogy.com}} He attended public schools in Stendal. He graduated from Evansville College (now the University of Evansville) in 1940, and served in the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard from 1942 to 1946, rising from seaman to lieutenant. Hartke graduated from the Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 1948.

Legal and political career

After joining the Indiana State Bar in 1948, Hartke began practicing law in Evansville. He also worked as deputy prosecuting attorney of Vanderburgh County (1950–1951) and mayor of Evansville (1956–1958), integrating the city swimming pools, before being elected to the United States Senate in 1958 and reelected in 1964 and 1970.

Senate service and later life

File:Barasch Hatfield Hartke1968.jpg (left) and George Barasch (center) in 1968]]

In the Senate, Hartke was best known for his opposition to the Vietnam War and his chairmanship of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. He fell out with President Lyndon Johnson when he became one of the Vietnam War's first opponents.

Hartke was elected to the Senate in 1958 at age 39, defeating Republican Governor Harold Handley. He became known as a hard-working, liberal Democrat with a strong relationship with Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson. In his first term, Hartke was a member of the Finance and Commerce committees, lobbied for programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Hartke was reelected over state Senator Russell Bontrager in 1964, becoming only the third Indiana Democrat, after Benjamin Franklin Shively in 1914 and Frederick Van Nuys in 1938, to be popularly elected to a second Senate term. He helped create student loan programs and new veterans' benefits during his second term. He helped to establish Amtrak as chair of the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation.

After his sister, Ruth E. Hartke, was killed in a head-on crash in Ohio in 1964 while working his campaign, Hartke used his chairmanship of Commerce Transportation Subcommittee to require that automakers equip cars with seat belts and other safety equipment. He also was instrumental in creating the International Executive Service Corps, an organization modeled after the Peace Corps that sent retired U.S. businessmen to poor countries to help turn small businesses into larger ones.

Hartke was credited with important roles in passing measures that created or supported student loan programs, veterans' benefits, and the Head Start Program. He introduced a bill to create the George Washington Peace Academy and a Department of Peace. The concept became known as the first cornerstone for the campaign that led to the creation of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

Hartke was praised for winning passage of a measure making kidney dialysis more widely available. A statement entered into the Congressional Record in honor of his 80th birthday credited the measure with saving 500,000 lives.

His opposition to the Vietnam War was not popular in Indiana. In 1970, after a very bitter and tight race against Republican Congressman Richard L. Roudebush and a ballot recount, Hartke won a third term by 4,283 votes. In 1972, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination against Senators Edmund Muskie and George McGovern. In 1976, after narrowly surviving a primary challenge by freshman Eighth District Congressman Philip Hayes, Hartke lost the general Senate election to Indianapolis Mayor Richard Lugar in a landslide. Until Joe Donnelly was elected in 2012, Hartke was the most recent Indiana Democrat, aside from a member of the Bayh family, to be elected to and serve in the Senate.

In 1994, Hartke pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor election fraud charge in southeastern Indiana's Dearborn County.[https://www.baltimoresun.com/2003/07/29/deaths-elsewhere-408/ Deaths Elsewhere], Baltimore Sun, July 29, 2003. Retrieved January 22, 2014. During the previous November's general election, a Kentucky-based casino firm had employed him as a consultant to support it during a casino-legalization referendum.[https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/09/us/ex-senator-indicted-in-polling-place-incidents.html Ex-Senator Indicted in Polling Place Incidents], New York Times, September 9, 1994. Retrieved January 22, 2014.

Hartke wrote three books—The American Crisis in Vietnam, You and Your Senator,{{cite news|url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/07/29/sen-vance-hartke-84-dies/beef8d46-d89e-4959-8120-b44bf2fab221/|title = Sen. Vance Hartke, 84, Dies|newspaper = The Washington Post|date = July 29, 2003|accessdate = September 29, 2022|last = Weil|first = Martin|url-access = limited}} and Inside the New Frontier, the last co-authored with John M. Redding.

Personal life and death

Hartke and his wife, Martha, had seven children. Their daughter Anita Hartke was the 2008 Democratic nominee for the United States House of Representatives from the 7th congressional district of Virginia. She lost to the Republican incumbent, Eric Cantor.

Hartke died at a hospital in Fairfax, Virginia on July 27, 2003, aged 84.

Posthumous award

In 2009, Hartke received the JFK Club of Vanderburgh County's John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Posthumous Award, "to carry forward the legacy and principles of President John F. Kennedy by supporting legislation and government officials or candidates that promote social justice and equality, in order to build a better community and society for all."

Electoral history

{{Election box begin no change

| title = 1955 Evansville, Indiana mayoral election{{cite web |title=1505148253_11313.pdf |url=https://www.evansvillegov.org/egov/documents/1505148253_11313.pdf|publisher=Evansville, Indiana |access-date=4 November 2019 }}}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

| candidate = R. Vance Hartke

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| votes = 25,862

| percentage = 54.12%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| candidate = Curtis E. Huber

| party = Republican Party (United States)

| votes = 21,699

| percentage = 45.40%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| candidate = William C. Christmas

| party = Prohibition Party (United States)

| votes = 230

| percentage = 0.48%

}}

{{Election box majority no change

| votes = 4,163

| percentage = 8.71%

}}

{{Election box total no change

| votes = 47,791

| percentage =

}}

{{Election box gain with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

| loser = Republican Party (United States)

| swing =

}}

{{Election box begin no change

| title = 1958 United States Senate election in Indiana{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1958election.pdf |title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 4, 1958 |publisher=Clerk.house.gov |access-date=May 6, 2019}}}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| candidate = Vance Hartke

| votes = 973,636

| percentage = 56.47%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = Republican Party (United States)

| candidate = Harold W. Handley

| votes = 731,635

| percentage = 42.43%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = Prohibition Party (United States)

| candidate = John Stelle

| votes = 19,040

| percentage = 1.10%

}}

{{Election box majority no change

| votes = 242,001

| percentage = 14.04%

}}

{{Election box turnout no change

| votes = 1,724,311

| percentage =

}}

{{Election box hold with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

| loser =

| swing =

}}

{{Election box begin no change | title=1964 United States Senate election in Indiana{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1964election.pdf |title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 3, 1964 |publisher=Clerk.house.gov |access-date=April 5, 2015}}

}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| candidate = Vance Hartke (incumbent)

| votes = 1,128,505

| percentage = 54.33%

| change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = Republican Party (United States)

| candidate = D. Russell Bontrager

| votes = 941,519

| percentage = 45.33%

| change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = Prohibition Party (United States)

| candidate = J. Ralston Miller

| votes = 5,708

| percentage = 0.27%

| change =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = Socialist Labor Party of America

| candidate = Casimer Kanczuzewski

| votes = 1,231

| percentage = 0.06%

| change =

}}

{{Election box majority no change

| votes = 187,986

| percentage = 9.00%

| change =

}}

{{Election box turnout no change

| votes = 2,076,963

| percentage =

| change =

}}

{{Election box hold with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

| loser =

| swing =

}}

{{Election box begin no change | title=1970 United States Senate election in Indiana{{cite web|url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1970election.pdf|title=Statistics of the Congressional Election of November 3, 1970|publisher=Clerk of the United States House of Representatives|access-date=March 13, 2015|page=7}}}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Vance Hartke (incumbent)

|votes = 870,990

| percentage = 50.12%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Republican Party (United States)

|candidate = Richard L. Roudebush

|votes = 866,707

| percentage = 49.88%

}}

{{Election box majority no change

|votes = 4,283

| percentage = 0.24%

|change =

}}

{{Election box turnout no change

|votes = 1,737,697

| percentage =

|change =

}}

{{Election box hold with party link no change

| winner = Democratic Party (United States)

| loser =

| swing =

}}

{{Election box begin no change | title = Cumulative results of the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Hubert Humphrey

|votes = 4,121,372

|percentage = 25.34

}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = George McGovern

|votes = 4,053,451

|percentage = 25.34

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = George Wallace

|votes = 3,755,424

|percentage = 23.48

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Edmund Muskie

|votes = 1,840,217

|percentage = 11.51

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Eugene McCarthy

|votes = 553,990

|percentage = 3.46

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Henry M. Jackson

|votes = 505,198

|percentage = 3.16

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Shirley Chisholm

|votes = 430,703

|percentage = 2.69

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Terry Sanford

|votes = 331,415

|percentage = 2.07

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = John Lindsay

|votes = 196,406

|percentage = 1.23

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Sam Yorty

|votes = 79,446

|percentage = 0.50

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Wilbur Mills

|votes = 37,401

|percentage = 0.23

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Vance Hartke

|votes = 11,798

|percentage = 0.07

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Patsy Mink

|votes = 8,286

|percentage = 0.05

}}

{{Election box begin no change | title = 1972 Democratic National Convention delegate count
(1,509 delegates needed to secure nomination)}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = George McGovern

|votes = 1864.95

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Henry M. Jackson

|votes = 525

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = George Wallace

|votes = 381.7

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Shirley Chisholm

|votes = 151.95

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Terry Sanford

|votes = 77.5

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Hubert Humphrey

|votes = 66.7

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Wilbur Mills

|votes = 33.8

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Edmund Muskie

|votes = 24.3

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Edward M. Kennedy

|votes = 12.7

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Sam Yorty

|votes = 10

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Wayne Hays

|votes = 5

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = John Lindsay

|votes = 5

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Fred Harris

|votes = 2

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Eugene McCarthy

|votes = 2

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Walter Mondale

|votes = 2

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Ramsey Clark

|votes = 1

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Walter Fauntroy

|votes = 1

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Vance Hartke

|votes = 1

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Harold Hughes

|votes = 1

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

|party = Democratic Party (United States)

|candidate = Patsy Mink

|votes = 1

|percentage =

}}

{{Election box begin no change

| title=1976 United States Senate election in Indiana{{cite web |title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 2, 1976 |url=https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1976election.pdf |publisher=Clerk of the House of Representatives |page=14}}}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link no change

| party = Republican Party (United States)

| candidate = Richard Lugar

| votes = 1,275,833

| percentage = 59.03%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = Democratic Party (United States)

| candidate = Vance Hartke (incumbent)

| votes = 868,522

| percentage = 40.19%

}}

{{Election box candidate no change

| party = Independent politician

| candidate = Don L. Lee

| votes = 14,321

| percentage = 0.66%

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link no change

| party = U.S. Labor Party

| candidate = David Lee Hoagland

| votes = 2,511

| percentage = 0.12%

}}

{{Election box majority no change

| votes = 407,311

| percentage = 18.85%

}}

{{Election box turnout no change

| votes = 2,161,187

| percentage =

}}

{{Election box gain with party link no change

| winner = Republican Party (United States)

| loser = Democratic Party (United States)

| swing =

}}

References

{{cite web | url=http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/rvhartke.htm |publisher=Arlington National Cemetery |title=Rupert Vance Hartke|date=5 November 2022 }}
{{cite news | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jul-29-me-hartke29-story.html | work=Los Angeles Times| title=Vance Hartke, 84; Indiana Senator Opposed Johnson on Vietnam | author=Myrna Oliver | date=29 July 2003}}
{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/29/us/vance-hartke-84-antiwar-senator-from-indiana-dies.html | work=New York Times| title=Vance Hartke, 84, Antiwar Senator From Indiana, Dies | author=Wolfgang Saxon | date=29 July 2003}}
{{cite book | last=Olson | first=James Stuart| title= Historical Dictionary of the 1960s | publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group | year=1999| isbn=978-0-313-29271-2| page=222 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7KG3GgZUHoC}}
{{cite web | url=http://www.usip.org/about-us/usip-timeline | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416180055/http://www.usip.org/about-us/usip-timeline | url-status=dead | archive-date=April 16, 2013 |publisher=United States Institute of Peace |title=USIP Timeline}}
{{cite web | url=http://0-www.gpo.gov.library.colby.edu/fdsys/pkg/CREC-2003-07-31/pdf/CREC-2003-07-31-pt2-PgS10594-3.pdf|publisher=Congressional Record, Senate |title=Honoring the Life of Senator Vance Hartke}}
{{cite journal |publisher=Richard A. Rettig, Duke University |title=The Policy Debate on Patient Care Financing for Victims of End-Stage Renal Disease|journal=Law and Contemporary Problems|volume=40|issue=4|pages=196–230|jstor = 1191314|last1 = Rettig|first1 = Richard A.|year=1976|doi=10.2307/1191314|pmid=11661595|url=https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol40/iss4/6}}
{{cite web | url=http://www.usip.org/about-us/usip-timeline | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416180055/http://www.usip.org/about-us/usip-timeline | url-status=dead | archive-date=April 16, 2013 |publisher=United States Institute of Peace |title=USIP Timeline}}
{{cite web | url=http://www.lifeinlegacy.com/2003/WIR20030802.html |publisher=Life in Legacy |title=Life in Legacy 2003}}

External links

{{C-SPAN|8641}}

{{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from Indiana
(Class 1)|years=1958, 1964, 1970, 1976}}

{{U.S. Senator box | state=Indiana | class=1 | before=William E. Jenner | after=Richard Lugar | years=1959–1977| alongside=Homer E. Capehart, Birch Bayh}}

{{s-ttl|title=Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee|years=1971–1977}}

{{USCongRep-start|congresses= 86th-94th United States Congress |state=Indiana}}