Dick Clark (Iowa politician)

Richard Clarence Clark was born on September 14, 1928, in Paris, Iowa. He graduated from Lamont High School in 1947 and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in Europe during the Korean War. Clark was educated at the University of Maryland, Wiesbaden and the University of Frankfurt from 1950 to 1952 during his military service. He completed his BA in 1953 at Upper Iowa University and his Master's in 1956 at the University of Iowa.[1] He then became a professor at Upper Iowa University and a Democratic Party volunteer, working to collect names, addresses, and phone numbers of party members with the goal of contacting them on election day to get them to the polls. This resulted in Democratic victories in an otherwise Republican area.[1]

This caught the attention of attorney John Culver of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, who enlisted Clark to help run his congressional campaign in 1964. After their victory, Clark became Culver's administrative assistant, and the pair modernized the Iowa Democratic Party's grassroots efforts in the state, building up a sophisticated voter turnout organization that progressed from names on index cards to computerized databases.[1]

In 1971, Culver was contemplating running for the U.S. Senate. He dispatched Clark to travel the state to set up infrastructure for a potential campaign. But in early 1972, Culver decided that defeating entrenched incumbent Republican Senator Jack Miller was impossible and bowed out of the race. With the infrastructure set up and no other Democratic candidate in the race, Clark entered it himself.[1]

Clark in 1972

Throughout the campaign, polls showed Clark trailing Miller by lopsided margins. A critical part of Clark's campaign was his 1,300-mile (2,100 km) walk across the state to gain publicity.[2] He won in an upset, with 662,637 votes (55%) to Miller's 530,525 (44%). American Independent Party candidate William Rocap received 8,954 votes (1%). In 1974, Clark was joined by Culver, his former boss, who rode to victory because of the Republican Party's unpopularity in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Clark was a very liberal senator, consistently ranked among the most liberal during his tenure.[3] He served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and chaired the Subcommittee on Africa, developing considerable expertise on the crisis in Angola. In 1976, he authored the Clark Amendment, which barred aid from the U.S. government to private groups engaged in military or paramilitary operations in Angola.

Clark ran for reelection in 1978 against Republican Roger Jepsen. Because of his efforts against the apartheid government in South Africa, Jepsen taunted him as "the Senator from Africa".[4] In a nationally poor year for Democrats, Clark lost the seat by a narrow margin. President Jimmy Carter then appointed him to be Ambassador at Large and United States Coordinator for Refugee Affairs in 1979; later that year, Clark resigned from his position to join the presidential campaign of Ted Kennedy, with whom Clark had served in the Senate, against Carter.[5] In 1980, he became a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies.

As a senator, Clark served on the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Clark married Julie Kennett in 1977. He had three children from his previous marriage to Jean Shirley Gross, which ended in divorce.[6]

Clark died at his Washington, D.C., home on September 20, 2023, six days after his 95th birthday. Upon his death, Daniel J. Evans became the last living former U.S. senator born in the 1920s.[6]

• Angolan Civil War
• Clark Amendment
• Treaty Powers Resolution

• Congressional Biography
• Description of Dick Clark's papers at the University of Iowa