Jeremiah Denton - Political Career

Political Career

In 1980, Denton ran as a Republican for a U.S. Senate seat from his home state of Alabama and achieved a surprise victory over Democrat Jim E. Folsom, Jr., who had defeated the incumbent, Donald W. Stewart, in the Democratic primary. In doing so, he became the only retired admiral to be elected to the United States Senate, as well as the first Republican since Reconstruction to represent Alabama in the U.S. Senate, and the first Catholic to be elected to statewide office in Alabama. In the U.S. Senate, he compiled a solidly conservative voting record. He was featured in a 1981 article in Time Magazine called, "The Admiral from Alabama".

In 1986, he narrowly lost his bid for reelection to 7th District Congressman Richard Shelby, who later became a Republican in 1994. In 2007, his wife Jane died. They had been married for sixty-one years.

Jeremiah Denton is not related to former Alabama state senator Bobby E. Denton.