{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Joe Waggonner | image = Joe d waggonner jr.jpg | state = [[Louisiana]] | district = {{ushr|LA|4|4th}} | term_start = December 19, 1961 | term_end = January 3, 1979 | predecessor = [[Overton Brooks]] | successor = [[Buddy Leach]] | birth_name = Joseph David Waggonner Jr. | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|9|7}} | birth_place = [[Plain Dealing, Louisiana]], U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2007|10|7|1918|9|7}} | death_place = [[Shreveport, Louisiana]], U.S. | party = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] | spouse = {{marriage|Mary Carter|1942}} | children = 2 | relatives = [[Willie Waggonner]] (brother) | education = [[Louisiana Tech University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]]) | branch = [[United States Navy]] | service_years = [[World War II]]<br>[[Korean War]] }} '''Joseph David Waggonner Jr.''' (September 7, 1918 – October 7, 2007) was a [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] for the [[Louisiana's 4th congressional district|4th congressional district]] in northwest [[Louisiana]] from December 1961 to January 1979. He was also a confidant of Republican President [[Richard Nixon]].
==Background== Waggonner was born in [[Plain Dealing, Louisiana|Plain Dealing]] to Joe David Waggonner Sr. and the former Elizzibeth<!--(unusual but correct spelling)--> Johnston. He graduated from Plain Dealing High School and in 1941 from [[Louisiana Tech University]], where he was a member of [[Kappa Sigma]]. On December 14, 1942, he married Mary Ruth Carter. The couple resided in their later years in [[Benton, Louisiana|Benton]], the seat of Bossier Parish, and then in the more populous [[Bossier City, Louisiana|Bossier City]].<ref name=obit>{{cite news|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/shreveporttimes/obituary.aspx?pid=95784595|title=Joseph Waggonner Jr.|work=Shreveport Times|date=October 8, 2007}}</ref>
During [[World War II]] and the [[Korean War]], Waggonner served in the [[United States Navy|U.S. Navy]], having attained the rank of [[lieutenant commander]]. In between and after the wars, he was a petroleum product wholesaler.<ref name=obit/>
He was first elected to public office in 1954 to a seat on the Bossier Parish School Board, of which he was president from 1956 to 1957. In 1959, Waggonner ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the position of Louisiana [[Comptroller|state comptroller]], losing to Roy R. Theriot.<ref>''Minden Press-Herald'', November 13, 1959, p. 13.</ref>
On July 23, 1960, Waggonner was elected to the Louisiana State Board of Education from the Third District of the [[Louisiana Public Service Commission]], unseating incumbent C. Raymond Heard.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54408521/the-monroe-news-star/|work=The Monroe News-Star|date=July 2, 1960|title=Minorities Decided Recent Primaries}}</ref> In 1961, Waggonner was chosen president of the Louisiana School Boards Association and the United Schools Committee of Louisiana, positions from which he promoted [[segregationist]] policies.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54408873/the-monroe-news-star/|date=February 8, 1962|work=The Monroe News-Star|title=Waggonner Fears Integration Try}}</ref> He had also been instrumental in the founding of the [[White Citizens Council]] in the late 1950s, and served as the president of its Louisiana Fourth District Chapter.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XQeYu-GxlKwC&pg=PA165|title=The Rise of Southern Republicans|last1=Black|first1=Earl|last2=Black|first2=Merle|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674020986}}</ref>
==Election to Congress== [[Image:RepsVisitMSFC1962.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Representative Waggonner and other members of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics visit the [[Marshall Space Flight Center]] in [[Huntsville, Alabama]], on March 9, 1962, to gather first-hand information of the nation's space exploration program.]]
Waggonner won a [[By-election|special election]] on December 19, 1961, to succeed long-time U.S. Representative [[Overton Brooks]], who had died in office. Waggonner had already announced his intention to oppose Brooks for renomination in the [[1962 United States House of Representatives elections|1962]] Democratic primary, spurred by Brooks' congressional vote to expand the [[House Rules Committee]] to permit Speaker [[Sam Rayburn]] to add new liberal members to the panel, which was dominated at the time by minority conservatives from both national parties.<ref>{{cite news|work=The Shreveport Times|date=December 1, 1961|title=4th District's Congressional Race Enters Home Stretch}}</ref> In the special election, Waggonner turned back a relatively strong Republican challenge from Charlton Lyons, an Abbeville native and a Shreveport oilman. Waggonner polled 33,892 votes (54.5 percent) to Lyons' 28,250 ballots (45.5 percent).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54410199/lake-charles-american-press/|work=Lake Charles American-Press|title=GOP Challenge Turned Back By Waggonner|date=December 2, 1961}}</ref> Over his eight re-elections, he faced opposition only twice, easily turning back primary challenges both times.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=16610|title=Joseph D. Waggonner, Jr. elector history|work=Our Campaigns}}</ref>
==Rhodesia== Commenting on the founding of [[Rhodesia]], Waggonner said on April 5, 1966:
<blockquote>Three generations ago, a group of resourceful white men went into the jungle of what is now Rhodesia and carved a civilized land by the sheer force of their brains and management ability. The lesson of history was crystal clear then as it is now: the natives were not capable of producing any semblance of what we call civilization. Now that the white man had led them out of savagery, the [[socialism|Socialist]], left-wing camp is up in arms to turn the country back to them. This is, of course, a not too subtle way of building a Socialist bridge from Democracy to [[Communism]].<ref name="rhodesia">Lake, Anthony. ''The "Tar Baby" Option: American Policy Toward Southern Rhodesia'', 1976. Page 119.</ref></blockquote>
==Republican/Southern Democrat coalition== In Congress, Waggonner often supported a Republican-Southern Democratic [[coalition]] on various issues, later known as the "[[Boll weevil (politics)|Boll Weevils]]". He was [[fiscal conservatism|fiscally conservative]] and opposed many federal social programs as well as civil rights legislation in 1964, 1965 and 1968. He took a "hawkish" position on the [[Vietnam War]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGpMrxnZZHEC&pg=PA243|last=Woods|first=Jeff|year=2003|title=Black Struggle, Red Scare: Segregation and Anti-Communism in the South, 1948–1968|publisher=LSU Press |isbn=9780807129265}}</ref>
He served as an informal [[whip (politics)|whip]] for President [[Richard Nixon]] during his impeachment investigation. Waggonner initially estimated that he could rally 70 Democratic votes against impeachment,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPBzAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT347|title=Nixon Volume III: Ruin and Recovery 1973–1990|last=Ambrose|first=Stephen|year=2014|publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781481424134}}</ref> but as the investigation unfolded, Nixon's support fell, and Waggonner reported that he could only rally 38 votes, at which point Nixon knew he didn't have the numbers necessary to avoid impeachment.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/08/02/archives/house-impeachment-numbers-game-first-you-take-248-subtract-187-the.html|title=House. Impeachment Numbers Game: First You Take 248, Subtract 187...|last=Apple|first=R. W.|work=New York Times|date=August 2, 1974}}</ref>
==Death==
After his death on October 7, 2007, Louisiana Governor [[Kathleen Blanco]] ordered that the flags at the State Capitol and Governor's Mansion be flown at half-staff to honor Waggonner. "Joe Waggonner was quite a character, representing our state during a tumultuous time in Congress. He was an economic development pioneer for Northwest Louisiana, and will be remembered for his hard work to lift up the region," Blanco said in her statement.<ref>{{cite news|work=The Shreveport Times|date=October 8, 2007|title=Hundred pay respects}}</ref>
Former Governor [[Buddy Roemer]], whom Waggonner opposed as his successor in the House in 1978, remarked: "He was bipartisan, or better yet, nonpartisan. He kept putting his district, his state, his country first, not his party. The first thing they said was 'Democrats vote this way, Republicans vote this way,' and Joe Waggonner said 'Nonsense!'"<ref>{{cite news|work=The Shreveport Times|date=October 1, 2007|title=Waggonner slips into history with dignity}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://waggonnercenter.org/index.html Waggonner Center at Louisiana Tech University] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728165729/http://waggonnercenter.org/index.html |date=July 28, 2011 }} {{CongLinks | congbio=W000018}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{s-bef|before=[[Overton Brooks]]}} {{s-ttl|title=Member of the [[List of United States representatives from Louisiana|U.S. House of Representatives]]<br>from [[Louisiana's 4th congressional district]]|years=1961–1979}} {{s-aft|after=[[Buddy Leach]]}} <!-- |- {{s-ppo}} {{s-new|office}} {{s-ttl|title=Chair of the Democratic Research Organization|years=1973–1975}} {{s-aft|after=[[David E. Satterfield III]]}} --> {{s-end}}
{{LARepresentatives}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waggonner, Joe}} [[Category:1918 births]] [[Category:2007 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century United States representatives]] [[Category:American businesspeople in the energy industry]] [[Category:Citizens' Councils members]] [[Category:Democratic Party United States representatives from Louisiana]] [[Category:Louisiana Democrats]] [[Category:Louisiana Tech University alumni]] [[Category:Methodists from Louisiana]] [[Category:People from Bossier City, Louisiana]] [[Category:People from Plain Dealing, Louisiana]] [[Category:Politicians from Shreveport, Louisiana]] [[Category:School board members in Louisiana]] [[Category:United States Navy officers]] [[Category:United States Navy personnel of the Korean War]] [[Category:United States Navy personnel of World War II]]