Political Career
In 1972, Ashcroft ran for a Congressional seat in southwest Missouri in the Republican primary election, narrowly losing to Gene Taylor. After the primary, Missouri Governor Kit Bond appointed Ashcroft to the office of State Auditor, which Bond had vacated when he became Governor.
In 1974, Ashcroft was narrowly defeated for election to that post by Jackson County County Executive George W. Lehr, who argued that Ashcroft, who is not an accountant, was not qualified to be the State Auditor. Missouri Attorney General John Danforth, who was then in his second term, hired Ashcroft as an Assistant Attorney General. During his tenure there, Ashcroft shared an office with future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. (In 2001, Thomas administered Ashcroft's oath of office as U.S. Attorney General.)
In 1976, Danforth was elected to the U.S. Senate, and Ashcroft was elected to replace him as State Attorney General. In 1980, Ashcroft was re-elected with 64.5 percent of the vote and winning 96 of Missouri's 114 counties.
Read more about this topic: John Ashcroft
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“Genocide begins, however improbably, in the conviction that classes of biological distinction indisputably sanction social and political discrimination.”
—Andrea Dworkin (b. 1946)
“A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)