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137 c h a p t e r s i x The Storms of Õ72 The bitterest races, the ones that can tear a party asunder, do not always involve sharp ideological or issue differences. Ego sometimes eclipses grand ideas. The 1972 Democratic primaries for the U.S. Senate and governorship ripped the North Carolina party apart in ways that could not have been foreseen. Major debates over political philosophy would have to await the general election in the fall. With incumbent Richard Nixon their certain presidential nominee, Republicans hoped for the best party showing to date in the nation and possibly in North Carolina. Nixon combined public piety with a private strategy of political vengeance. He dreamed of a new Republican majority built on a base in the long-Democratic South. the skirmishes Senator B. Everett Jordan wanted another term, not an unlikely prospect in the current order of things. Jordan and his more senior colleague, Sam J. Ervin Jr., had served together for fourteen years, each initially by appointment after the death of an incumbent. Jordan made few waves. He chaired the Senate’s committee on Rules and Administration. With midrange ratings from both liberal and conservative Washington-based ideological groups, Jordan was about as close to moderate as anyone in the Senate. In addition, political impresario William McWhorter Cochrane, a shrewd and scrupulous practitioner of politics as the art of the possible, served as Jordan’s administrative assistant. Few grasped the ways of Capitol Hill or North Carolina better than Cochrane. Under his direction, Jordan’s office excelled in constituent service. Jordan’s public persona was bland and colorless , not always a handicap for North Carolinians in Congress. At times he came across as worn out and ready for retirement, a view reinforced 138 / The Storms of ’72 when he had cancer surgery. Still, had it not been for Nick Galifianakis, a son of Greek immigrants who projected youth and vibrancy, Jordan would likely have coasted to renomination. From 1961 until his election to Congress in 1966, Galifianakis had been a Durham member of the N.C. House. His congressional district, stretching across the north central piedmont and diverse with white conservatives and academic liberals as well as a large and well-organized black constituency , was not easy to represent in contentious times. Facing a shaky political situation after reapportionment, Galifianakis saw 1972 as a good time to run for the U.S. Senate. He hoped that voters would go for a younger, more dynamic man who embraced not only Roosevelt’s New Deal but also the free enterprise principles. His voting record in Congress resembled Jordan’s, so Galifianakis was no radical. His name might sound alien to North Carolina voters, but Galifianakis made jokes about it and pointed to his Greek descent and his family’s successful climb as a fulfillment of the American dream and then said, “Just call me Nick.” The Jordan forces initially viewed Galifianakis’s Senate bid as more an affront than a serious challenge; however, the campaign took a bitter and more personal turn in its waning days. Jordan’s supporters, who were representative of the party’s old-time wheelhorses, could not quite swallow the results of the first primary, in which Galifianakis took 377,993 votes to Jordan’s 340,301, with a few minor candidates receiving enough votes that Galifianakis did not get a majority. The challenger then won the June runoff primary, 333,558–267,997. Younger Democrats and those of a reform bent envisioned a bold new era in politics. Galifianakis may have been a bit more conservative than they would have liked, but he did represent change and a generational transition. Even his name and background were assets. Maybe the Old South was yielding to the New. Yet white conservatives together with white supremacists could still influence Democratic primary outcomes in North Carolina, a reality made clear in the May 1972 Democratic presidential primary, in which George Wallace overwhelmed former governor Terry Sanford by a vote of 413,518– 306,014. A third candidate, Representative Shirley Chisholm of Brooklyn, the first black to make a serious bid for the nomination, received 61,723 votes. While the combined Sanford-Chisholm vote was short of Wallace’s, white activists of a liberal bent and newly enfranchised African Americans were emerging as a force in party affairs. By 1972, their presence was more keenly felt both in the party caucuses and in primaries. With Bob Scott ineligible...

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