Background
Herman Welker was born at Cambridge, Idaho, the son of John Thornton Welker, a farmer, and Ann Zella Shepherd.
Herman Welker was born at Cambridge, Idaho, the son of John Thornton Welker, a farmer, and Ann Zella Shepherd.
Welker graduated from Weiser High School and then attended the University of Idaho at Moscow. While in college he sustained himself by herding sheep, washing dishes, and helping on a ranch. After graduation he attended the university law school, from which he received the LL. B. in 1929. While still in law school he was appointed prosecuting attorney of Washington County.
He remained in western Idaho, practicing law and farming, until 1935, when the lure of Hollywood attracted him to southern California. He built up a successful law practice throughout the West and proudly numbered entertainers among his clients. In 1943 Welker enlisted in the air force. While in the military he decided to return to Idaho and pursue a political career. Welker built up a law practice in Payette, and in 1948 was elected to the Idaho state senate. His state legislative experience proved to be a springboard for higher political goals. In 1950 he entered the Republican primaries as a candidate for the United States Senate. He faced numerous contenders in the Republican runoff. Welker ignored his Republican opponents and campaigned against the Democratic incumbent, Glen H. Taylor, an outspoken critic of the cold war who had bolted the Democrats in 1948 and run for vice-president on the Progressive ticket. Welker hammered away at the "soft on communism" theme that was developing throughout the nation in 1950. D. Worth Clark, a conservative Democrat, challenged Taylor in the Democratic primary and defeated him. Taylor blamed Welker, who easily won the Republican nomination. In his campaign against Clark, Welker's main theme centered on the "Red scare. " Utilizing the tactics made famous by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin, he defeated Clark by nearly 45, 000 votes. Welker was a straight-line conservative and usually voted the will of the Republican party as a senator. When the Republicans got control of the Senate in 1952, Welker obtained assignments on the judiciary, agriculture, and District of Columbia committees. Most important, he was put on Senator McCarthy's Internal Security Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. It was as a member of this subcommittee that Welker earned the title of "Junior McCarthy. " He worked hard at looking for subversives throughout the government. His motives were probably both political and patriotic. He did believe that there were Communist agents employed by the federal government, and he felt that the Republican party could clean them out. His desire to cleanse the United States of leftists brought Welker back to Idaho in 1954. Taylor had won the Democratic senatorial nomination, and the incumbent Republican, Henry Dworshak, was barely holding on to a slight lead in the polls. Welker devised a successful scheme to discredit Taylor among the Idaho electorate. At the very time the full Senate was considering the censure of Senator McCarthy, Welker called the Internal Security Subcommittee into special session. Although he was the only senator in attendance, he listened to testimony by a number of former Communists, including Herbert Philbrick, Matthew Cvetic, and John Lautner. They testified that Taylor and the 1948 Progressive party were Communist-controlled and -inspired. According to Welker, Taylor knew this to be the case, yet he ran. Welker and Cvetic then flew to Idaho and campaigned against Taylor. Dworshak was the easy winner. Welker stoutly defended McCarthy on the Senate floor but was unable to stop the censure move. The discrediting of McCarthy had an effect on Welker's credibility in Idaho. Although he was renominated in 1956, a young Democratic attorney, Frank Church, had little difficulty in defeating him. During Welker's last year in the Senate, and especially during the campaign, it was apparent that he was having health problems. He collapsed on two occasions and at times found it difficult to form sentences correctly. After his defeat Welker intended to return to Boise and practice law, but in 1957 he was operated on twice in Washington, D. C. , for a brain tumor. He died following the second operation.
A handsome man with prematurely gray hair, Welker possessed a fine platform presence.
On September 12, 1930, Welker married Gladys Pence. They had one daughter.