On June 16, 1964, the Texas Republican Party held its state convention in Dallas. According to the Associated Press, an estimated 11,000 people filled the Dallas Memorial Auditorium (now known as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center) for the occasion. The primary objective of the convention was to vote on which presidential candidate Texas delegates would support at the Republican National Convention in San Francisco the next month. The Texas convention gave 56 delegates to Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, bringing the candidate’s pledged total to 674. He needed 655 to win the Republican nomination. In addition to voting on presidential candidates, the convention also passed a series of resolutions. One committed the state’s delegates to Goldwater until he personally released them, preventing delegates from changing their pledge at the national convention. Another resolution selected Senator John Tower of Texas as the head of the state delegation. This news footage captures the scene at the convention, including the speech delivered by Goldwater. KHOU reporter Nick Gearhart also speaks with the George H. W. Bush, who was running for United States Senate.
The digital preservation of this collection was made possible by a grant to the Texas Archive of the Moving Image and the Houston Public Library from the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services.
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George Herbert Walker Bush is the 41st President of the United States and the father of George W. Bush, the 43rd President of the United States.
Bush was born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, to Prescott Bush, a US senator from Connecticut, and Dorothy Walker Bush. He spent his youth in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Andover, Massachusetts, where he become involved in student government, sports, and the school newspaper. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, he became an aviator for the US Navy.
Bush married Barbara Pierce in 1945, and they eventually had six children: George, Robin, John (called Jeb), Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. After earning a degree from Yale University, Bush moved to Midland, Texas, to work in the oil industry, eventually starting two companies. The family then moved to Houston, where Bush began to pursue a career in politics and served as chairman of the Republican Party in Harris County. After a failed campaign for US Senate, he won an election to the US House of Representatives in 1966 and served two terms for Texas. In 1970, he attempted to win a seat in the Senate, but lost again.
After this defeat, Bush was appointed by President Richard Nixon to be an ambassador to the United Nations. He then served as chairman of the Republican National Committee, chief of the US Liaison Office in the People's Republic of China, and director of the CIA. In 1980, Bush lost the Republican nomination for president, but was chosen as Ronald Reagan’s running mate. He was Vice President of the United States from 1981 to 1989.
Following Reagan’s second term, Bush was elected president. During his term, he secured a peaceful partnership with Russia at the end of the Cold War, and he led Operation Desert Storm to free Kuwait from Iraq. Despite these successes, Bush’s popularity suffered due to the weak economy, and he lost reelection for a second term to Bill Clinton. He and Barbara returned to Houston in 1992, where they continue to live.
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