Background
Lloyd Bentsen was born in Mission, Texas, on Feb. 11, 1921. His father was one of the wealthiest landowners in southern Texas.
politician secretary of the treasury senator
Lloyd Bentsen was born in Mission, Texas, on Feb. 11, 1921. His father was one of the wealthiest landowners in southern Texas.
After receiving his law degree in 1942, he entered the Air Force where he became a highly decorated World War II bomber pilot.
In 1948 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
He declined to run for a fourth term in 1954. Instead, with financial help from his father, he started a successful insurance business in Houston. His business soon made him a millionaire in his own right.
In 1970 Bentsen returned to politics, running for the U.S. Senate. He defeated liberal incumbent Ralph Yarborough in the Democratic primary and Republican George Bush in the election. In the Senate, Bentsen was part of the conservative Democratic establishment.
When Michael Dukakis chose Bentsen as his running mate in 1988, progressive Democrats were disappointed. Bentsen had favored aid to the Nicaraguan "contras," higher defense spending, lower taxes for the rich, and prayer in the public schools, and had opposed gun control and the right to abortion. President Ronald Reagan had few more reliable allies among Democratic senators than Bentsen.
The choice of Bentsen was a major gamble for Dukakis. He was trying to win support from conservative whites alienated by his own liberal image, and he clearly hoped to win Texas with its 29 electoral votes plus nearby Louisiana and Oklahoma, all oil-producing states with depressed economies. Yet he could not afford to alienate disaffected groups who traditionally voted Democratic and had been represented by Jesse Jackson--blacks, the underclass, trade unionists, and women. The gamble proved a failure when, on Nov. 8, 1988, Bentsen's old Republican rival George Bush defeated the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket in 40 states, including the entire South. Bentsen, whom pollsters found to be the most popular national candidate, was, however, easily elected to a fourth term in the Senate.
In January 1993 he resigned from the Senate to become secretary of the treasury.
He resigned from the treasury in 1994.
He supported civil rights legislation.