Sen. Ralph Yarborough

[Tom Bowden]

"Taking large contributions was not considered a sin. Yarbrough, however, would later be tainted by the Sharpstown scandal in 1972."

Tainted was the wrong word to use…affected would have been better.

In 1972, Ralph Yarborough made a comeback effort to win the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator as a challenger of Republican Sen. John Tower. Yarborough won the first round of the primary, coming short 526 votes of a full victory. Again, Yarborough suspected vote fraud from the conservative wing. He lost in the primary runoff to Barefoot Sanders in an anti-incumbent sweep after the Sharpstown Bank-stock Scandal despite neither being an incumbent nor involved at all with the scandal. It was Yarborough's last run for office.

My primary point was BSE was very liberal in his dealing with racial issues. He is still remembered in Pecos for his use of the Bracero program and treatment of Mexicans. He was also honored during the fifties for educating many blacks. HIs politics were closer to Yarbrough than LBJ. His backing of LBJ was only opportunistic.