Reubin O'Donovan Askew
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Reubin O'Donovan Askew (born September 11, 1928) is an American politician. A Democrat, Askew served as the 37th governor of the U.S. state of Florida from 1971 to 1979. Prior to becoming governor, Askew served in both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force, and later in the Florida State House and State Senate. Askew was one of the first Southern governors to openly support desegregation, and was offered but declined a place as Vice President on a ticket with George McGovern. Later in his career he was the United States Trade Representative and made unsuccessful bids for the Democratic presidential nomination (1984) and U.S. Senate (1988).
Askew was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma, one of the six children of Leon G. Askew and Alberta Askew. In 1937, he and his mother moved to Pensacola in Florida. In 1946, he entered the Army as a paratrooper and in 1948 was discharged in the rank of Sergeant. Askew attended Florida State University, at which he was a brother of Delta Tau Delta and Alpha Phi Omega, and the University of Florida. He served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1953. In 1956, Askew was elected as Assisant County Solicitor of Escambia County, Florida. In 1958, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and, in 1962, to the Florida Senate, from 1969 to 1970 he served as President Pro Tempore of the Florida State Senate.
In 1970, Askew was elected governor, and re-elected in 1974 making him the first Florida governor to serve two consecutive four year terms. As governor, Askew was one of the first of the 'New South' governors, at the same time as Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia and later Bill Clinton of Arkansas. He supported school desegregation and the controversial idea of busing to achieve racial balance; in addition he named the first black Justice of the State Supreme Court, the first woman to the State Cabinet as well as the first black to the State Cabinet in a hundred years.
Askew's national stature in the Democratic party grew and, in 1972, he was keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Miami. He was offered Vice Presidential spot on the Democratic ticket with Presidential Nominee George McGovern, but turned it down. He later accepted an appointment as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Ambassadorial Appointments by President Jimmy Carter. In 1979, Askew stepped down as governor to assumed the role of United States Trade Representative, serving until the end of the Carter Administration in 1981.
He joined a Miami law firm and at the same time began to organize a Presidential bid. He withdrew early when in February 1984, after he came in last in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary. In 1987, he declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, however in May 1988, he withdrew from the contest citing lack of fundraising.
Askew is the namesake of the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at the Florida State University, and teaches government at several Florida universities.
External links
- Official Governor's portrait and biography from the State of Florida (http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/museum/collections/governors/about.cfm?id=44)
| Preceded by: Claude R. Kirk, Jr. | Governor of Florida 1971–1979 | Succeeded by: D. Robert Graham |
| Preceded by: Robert S. Strauss | United States Trade Representative 1979–1981 | Succeeded by: William E. Brock III |