Winfield Dunn - Biography

Biography

Dunn was born in Meridian, Mississippi. He graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1950 with a B.B.A., and from the University of Tennessee Medical Units in Memphis in 1955 with a D.D.S. Dunn served with the U.S. Navy in the Asia-Pacific Theatre during World War II. Dunn was also a reserve lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force.

Settling in Memphis after completing dental school there, Dunn established a flourishing dental practice and soon became active in local Republican politics. The Southern political landscape was changing rapidly at that time, and Dunn rose to the position of chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party. There was a massive crossover of voters in the South from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in the late 1960s, in reaction to the Civil Rights Movement, and the trend was stronger nowhere than among white voters in Memphis. Dunn was a delegate to the 1968 Republican National Convention.

In 1970, Dunn decided to run for the Republican nomination for governor of Tennessee. The party had not even fielded a nominee in the gubernatorial election four years prior, but suddenly the nomination seemed valuable, in large measure to the factors cited above, and in the primary Dunn defeated four opponents, including 1962 Republican nominee Hubert Patty, then-Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives (and future 1st District-Congressman) William L. Jenkins, Claude K Robertson, Knoxville attorney, and industrialist Maxey Jarman, head of Genesco Corp. Harry W. Wellford (then a private attorney but later U.S. District Court and then U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Justice) served as Dunn's campaign chair and closest confidant. Wellford had also managed the campaign of Howard Baker's successful U.S. Senate bid 4 years earlier. After winning the Republican nomination, Dunn narrowly defeated Democratic attorney and entrepreneur John Jay Hooker and became the first Republican elected governor of Tennessee in half a century. During his tenure, Dunn was a member of the National Governors' Conference Executive Committee from 1971–1973, and he chaired the Education Commission of the States from 1972 to 1973 and the Republican Governors Association from 1973 to 1974. The Tennessee State Constitution did not allow governors to succeed themselves at the time that Dunn's term expired in 1975. He did not return to his dental practice in Memphis, but became a successful businessman in Nashville.

In 1986, he was prevailed upon to run for governor again. However, he was haunted by his opposition to a medical school at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City during his first term. At the time, Dunn felt that Tennessee could only devote adequate staff and resources to the existing school in Memphis. However, Johnson City was located in the district of powerful Congressman Jimmy Quillen, the de facto leader of the Republican Party in East Tennessee. Although the school was built anyway, Quillen was still enraged at Dunn and never forgave him. He didn't endorse Dunn, and encouraged other East Tennessee Republicans to withhold their endorsements as well. Although Dunn won the Republican primary, the lack of support in East Tennessee cost him any realistic chance against Democratic State House Speaker Ned McWherter. Only a large turnout from his former base in the Memphis area kept the margin of defeat to just under nine points.

Retiring from active politics, Dunn returned to his business interests, especially banking, with notably strong results. He continues to serve the Tennessee Republican Party as something of an "elder statesman" who is still very popular with grass-roots party members in Middle Tennessee and West Tennessee. In the 2004 presidential election, he served as one of Tennessee's 11 presidential electors, casting his ballot for George W. Bush. He also served as an elector in the 2008 presidential election, casting his ballot for John McCain.