Fred Harris, a self-proclaimed Democrat from Oklahoma who served eight years in the US Senate before an unsuccessful campaign for president in 1976, has died. He was 94 years old.
Harris’ wife, Margaret Elliston, confirmed his death to the Associated Press in a message on Saturday, writing: “Fred Harris passed peacefully this morning of natural causes. He was 94 years old. He was a wonderful and beloved man. His memory is a blessing.”
Harris, who lived in New Mexico, died at a hospital in Albuquerque, Elliston told The New York Times.
Harris began serving eight years in the Oklahoma State Senate after winning election in 1956. He then started his career in national politics in 1964 when he won the Senate race to fill the vacancy left by Seni. Robert S. Kerr, who died in January 1963.
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Sen. Fred R. Harris, D-Okla., holds a copy of the report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders as he and two other commission members discuss the study on the “Problems and Answers” television program, in Washington, March 3, 1968. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty, File)
“I’ve always called myself a celebrity or a progressive,” Harris said in a 1998 interview. “I’m against concentrated power. I don’t like the power of money in politics. I think we should have programs for the middle class and the working class.”
As a US senator, Harris was a member of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, called the Kerner Commission, which was appointed by then-President Lyndon Johnson to investigate urban riots in the late 1960s.
Sen. Fred Harris of Oklahoma served in the US Senate for eight years. (AP Photo, File)
The commission released its report in 1968, declaring, “our nation is headed for two communities, one black, one white – separate and unequal.”
Thirty years later, Harris co-authored a report that concluded that “the commission’s prophecy has come true,” stating that “the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and the few are suffering disproportionately.”
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In 1976, Harris ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination, dropping out of the race after a poor showing in the primaries. The more moderate Jimmy Carter went on to win the presidency.
Harris moved to New Mexico that year and became a professor of political science at the University of New Mexico. He wrote and edited more than a dozen books, mostly on politics and Congress. In 1999, he expanded his writing with a mystery set in Depression-era Oklahoma.
Former Oklahoma Sen. Fred Harris stands outside his home in Corrales, NM, Friday, July 23, 2004. Harris died Saturday at a hospital in Albuquerque, his wife said. He was 94 years old. (AP Photo/Jake Schoellkopf, File)
Harris was born on November 13, 1930, in a two-room farmhouse near Walters, in southwestern Oklahoma. The home had no electricity, indoor toilet or running water. He worked on a farm starting at age 5, driving a round horse to power a hay bailer – earning 10 cents a day.
He later worked part-time as a janitor and printer’s assistant to help pay for his education at the University of Oklahoma, where he received a law degree in 1954. He practiced law in Lawton before beginning his career in politics.
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Harris married his high school sweetheart, LaDonna Vita Crawford, in 1949, and had three children, Kathryn, Byron and Laura. After the couple divorced, Harris married Margaret Elliston in 1983.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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