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Carl Curtis
United States Senator from Nebraska
In office January 1, 1955 – January 3, 1979
Preceded by	Hazel Abel
Succeeded by	J. James Exon
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska
In office January 3, 1939 – December 31, 1954
Preceded by	Charles Binderup
Succeeded by	Phil Weaver
Constituency	4th district (1939–1943) 1st district (1943–1954)
Personal details
Born	Carl Thomas Curtis (1905-03-15)March 15, 1905 Minden, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	January 24, 2000(2000-01-24) (aged 94) Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouses	Lois Wylie Atwater ​ ​(m. 1931; died 1970)​ Mildred Malvina Genier ​ ​(m. 1972)​
Children	2
Alma mater	Nebraska Wesleyan University

Carl Thomas Curtis (March 15, 1905 – January 24, 2000) was an American attorney and politician from the U.S. state of Nebraska. He served as a Republican in the United States House of Representatives (1939–1954) and later the United States Senate (1955–1979). He remains the second longest-serving Senator from Nebraska.

Early life

Curtis was born on his family's farm in Kearney County, Nebraska, near the county seat of Minden. He attended public schools and later attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he was a member of Theta Chi. He studied law on his own, passed the bar exam, and began practicing; he served as the county attorney of Kearney County, Nebraska, from 1931 to 1934.

Career

Curtis was elected to the House of Representatives in 1938 on an anti-New Deal platform. He served from 1939 until 1954, being reelected every two years. He ran for the Senate from Nebraska in 1954 and won; subsequently, incumbent Hazel Abel resigned, and Curtis was appointed to the seat on January 1, 1955, getting a two-day jump on seniority. Curtis thus became the last of six Senators to serve during the fifteenth Senate term for Nebraska's Class 2 seat, from January 3, 1949, to January 3, 1955. He was reelected three more times to six-year terms, serving from 1955 to 1979.

Curtis voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, 1960, 1964, and 1968, as well as the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. Curtis was loyal to the Republican Party, particularly supporting its anti-communist stances and fiscal conservatism, which included opposition to social programs such as the New Deal and the Great Society.

During the 1963 investigation of bribery allegations against Democratic Party organizer Robert Baker, Curtis supposedly leaked a secret memorandum to advance his own positions.

A close ally of both Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon, Curtis served as floor leader during the 1964 Republican National Convention, when Goldwater won the nomination.

During the early 1970s, Curtis supported President Richard Nixon's Vietnam War escalation policy, and remained loyal to him throughout the Watergate Scandal. On August 6, 1974, two days before Nixon resigned, he implored Congress not to panic. He warned that the United States would become like a "banana republic" if Nixon was ousted in favor of Vice President Ford, who in turn would then select someone to fill the vice presidential slot. He said "this would mean both Ford and the new Vice President would be men who hadn't been elected to their high office, but merely nominated by a President under procedures for filling the vice presidency when it is vacant."

Curtis served as chairman of the Senate Republican Conference from 1975 to 1979.

Later life

Following his retirement, Curtis moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, where he practiced law, served as an officer of the conservative lobby the American Freedom Coalition, and gave occasional interviews to the media.

Curtis died in Lincoln on January 24, 2000, and is interred at Minden Cemetery in Minden, his longtime hometown. Following his death, he was praised on the floor by Strom Thurmond, a contemporary who had also been first elected to the Senate in 1954.

Notes and references

1. ^ "CURTIS, Carl Thomas, (1905–2000)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
2. "Notable Theta Chi Alumni". Theta Chi. 2018-01-19. Retrieved 2021-04-28.
3. "Carl Thomas Curtis (1905-2000)". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved October 6, 2012.
4. "HR. 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957". GovTrack.us.
5. "HR. 8601. PASSAGE OF AMENDED BILL".
6. "HR. 7152. PASSAGE".
7. "TO PASS H.R. 2516, A BILL TO PROHIBIT DISCRIMINATION IN SALE OR RENTAL OF HOUSING, AND TO PROHIBIT RACIALLY MOTIVATED INTERFERENCE WITH A PERSON EXERCISING HIS CIVIL RIGHTS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES".
8. "S.J. RES. 29. APPROVAL OF RESOLUTION BANNING THE POLL TAX AS PREREQUISITE FOR VOTING IN FEDERAL ELECTIONS". GovTrack.us.
9. "TO PASS S. 1564, THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965".
10. "CONFIRMATION OF NOMINATION OF THURGOOD MARSHALL, THE FIRST NEGRO APPOINTED TO THE SUPREME COURT". GovTrack.us.
11. Phillips, Cabell (17 March 1964). "Baker Case Causes Senate Floor Fight". New York Times. Retrieved 9 October 2014.
12. Rich, Spencer (August 7, 1974). "Resignation Urged By GOP Senators" (PDF). Washington Post. Retrieved November 17, 2019 – via The Weisberg Collection, Hood College, Frederick, Maryland.
13. "U.S. Senate: Republican Conference Chairpersons". www.senate.gov. Retrieved 2021-04-28.

External links

• United States Congress. "Carl Curtis (id: C001006)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• The Political Graveyard

v t e United States senators from Nebraska
Class 1	Tipton Paddock Van Wyck Paddock Allen Hayward Allen Dietrich Burkett G. Hitchcock Howell Thompson Hunter Burke Butler Reynolds Hruska Zorinsky Karnes Kerrey Nelson Fischer
Class 2	Thayer P. Hitchcock Saunders Manderson Thurston Millard Brown Norris Wherry Seaton Griswold Bowring Abel Curtis Exon Hagel Johanns Sasse Ricketts

v t e Republican Conference chairs of the United States Senate
J. Hale Anthony Sherman Edmunds Sherman Allison E. Hale Cullom Gallinger Lodge Chas. Curtis Watson McNary Vandenberg Millikin Saltonstall Smith Cotton C. T. Curtis Packwood McClure Chafee Cochran Mack Santorum Kyl Alexander Thune Barrasso Cotton

v t e Members of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nebraska
1st district	A. Weaver McShane Connell Bryan Strode Burkett Pollard Maguire Reavis Thorpe Morehead Luckey Heinke Sweet Copeland Curtis P. Weaver Beermann Callan Denney Thone Bereuter Fortenberry Flood
2nd district	Laird Laws McKeighan Mercer G. Hitchcock Kennedy G. Hitchcock Lobeck Jefferis Sears Baldrige Burke C. McLaughlin Buffett O'Sullivan Buffett Hruska Chase Cunningham McCollister Cavanaugh Daub Hoagland Christensen Terry Ashford Bacon
3rd district	Valentine Dorsey Kem Meiklejohn Maxwell Robinson McCarthy Boyd Latta Stephens Evans Howard Stefan Harrison Brock Beermann Martin V. Smith Barrett Osborne A. Smith
4th district	Hainer Stark Hinshaw Sloan M. McLaughlin Norton Sloan Norton Shallenberger Binderup Curtis Miller McGinley Martin
5th district	McKeighan Andrews Sutherland Shallenberger Norris Barton Shallenberger Andrews Shallenberger Johnson Shallenberger Carpenter Coffee
6th district	Kem Greene Neville Kinkaid Humphrey Simmons
At-large	Marquett Taffe Crounse Welch Majors Valentine
Territory	Giddings Chapman Ferguson Estabrook Daily P. Hitchcock

• 1905 births
• 2000 deaths
• Nebraska lawyers
• Nebraska Wesleyan University alumni
• People from Kearney County, Nebraska
• Republican Party United States senators from Nebraska
• Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Nebraska
• 20th-century American lawyers
• People from Minden, Nebraska
• 20th-century United States senators
• 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives