Reply #30: Al Lowenstein

[welshTerrier2]

Allard Lowenstein had a different effect on the Democratic party. A student leader of protests against the Vietnam War, Lowenstein organized the 1968 campaign to deny the party's renomination to Lyndon Johnson. Unable to persuade Robert Kennedy or George McGovern to challenge the incumbent president, he successfully recruited Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. When McCarthy came close to winning the New Hampshire primary, Johnson withdrew from the race, bringing Kennedy and, later, McGovern back into the race.

Lowenstein was himself elected to Congress for one term and continued his efforts to move the Democrats to the left for the next decade. Although party rules were changed to encourage more direct participation, he was generally unsuccessful in exerting influence on the nominations, as shown by the defeat of McCarthy in 1968 and Edward Kennedy in 1980. Lowenstein brought many young people into national Democratic politics, such as Representatives Barney Frank and Patricia Shroeder, but his reformist career ended violently with his assassination in 1980.