DOES PEOPLE DO IT?

The former Oklahoma senator turned novelist (Following the Harvest, 2004, etc.) recounts his populist rags-to-riches story from Depression-era hay baler to presidential contender.

Harris learned early on how to persevere against daunting odds. He hailed from a family of sharecroppers who barely eked out a living in Walters, Okla., during the 1930s. His father was an errant cattle trader and alcoholic, his mother hardworking and self-taught. Young Harris applied himself at the local schools and working odd jobs. Easygoing and popular, he was elected to the student council, won the state Future Farmers of America oratorical contest and decided on a law career. As a senior in high school he met LaDonna Crawford, who’d just moved into town after being raised on a farm by her Comanche grandparents. They were married a year later and soon had a baby daughter. Harris moved quickly through Oklahoma University College of Law on various scholarships and became active in the school’s league of young Democrats. When a seat opened unexpectedly in 1956, he ran for state senator and won at age 25. Six years later he ran unsuccessfully for governor, but when Senator Robert S. Kerr died unexpectedly, he moved into that seat with the endorsement of Kerr’s family and President Johnson, whose support and friendship carried him far in Washington. In 1967, when riots rocked the country, Harris headed Johnson’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. He grew increasingly critical of the Vietnam War, joined Walter Mondale to co-chair Hubert Humphrey’s campaign for president, but also became close to Robert Kennedy. Harris describes himself as “radicalized” by the time he ran for president in 1972 and again in ’76, which may explain why his campaigns quickly ran out of money. Now living in New Mexico, remarried after his divorce from LaDonna in 1982, teaching at UNM and writing books, he remains involved in the various Democratic campaigns, ever trusting in life’s serendipity.

Harris’s down-home, unaffected, gee-gosh style makes him a likable storyteller.