Heady Lamar

LAMAR Alexander began his second campaign for governor of Tennessee on January 26, 1978, on the front porch of his parents’ home in Maryville. From there, he set out to walk across the state—the long way. At the end of each day he’d stoop to mark the spot on the road with a piece of railroad chalk, and he’d pick up there the next morning after staying with a local family. On the ninth day he was hit by a truck. He picked up his scattered brochures, limped to the town infirmary, and four days later was on his way again. The early weeks saw some of Tennessee’s worst weather in fifty years. Alexander trundled through two-foot-deep snow. Finally, five months and 1,022 miles later, he arrived in Memphis, well on his way to becoming Tennessee’s second Republican governor since 1920.

The walk comes closer to distilling the essence of Lamar Alexander than anything else in his career. It was a studied reaction to a failure, his first gubernatorial bid four years earlier. It was precisely choreographed. Says Hotline publisher Doug Bailey, then an Alexander consultant: “It was logistically planned all the way. Those families and homes where Lamar stayed were chosen with great care as leaders either of churches or of their communities. Four young men were recruited out of the University of Tennessee for the washboard band that accompanied him, and there served as advance people too.” But none of it would have been possible without the Gump-like single-mindedness of the candidate who did the walking.

About the Author

Rich Lowry

Rich Lowry is the editor in chief of National Review.

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LAMAR Alexander began his second campaign for governor of Tennessee on January 26, 1978, on the front porch of his parents’ home in Maryville. From there, he set out to walk across the state—the long way. At the end of each day he’d stoop to mark the spot on the road with a piece of railroad chalk, and he’d pick up there the next morning after staying with a local family. On the ninth day he was hit by a truck. He picked up his scattered brochures, limped to the town infirmary, and four days later was on his way again. The early weeks saw some of Tennessee’s worst weather in fifty years. Alexander trundled through two-foot-deep snow. Finally, five months and 1,022 miles later, he arrived in Memphis, well on his way to becoming Tennessee’s second Republican governor since 1920.

The walk comes closer to distilling the essence of Lamar Alexander than anything else in his career. It was a studied reaction to a failure, his first gubernatorial bid four years earlier. It was precisely choreographed. Says Hotline publisher Doug Bailey, then an Alexander consultant: “It was logistically planned all the way. Those families and homes where Lamar stayed were chosen with great care as leaders either of churches or of their communities. Four young men were recruited out of the University of Tennessee for the washboard band that accompanied him, and there served as advance people too.” But none of it would have been possible without the Gump-like single-mindedness of the candidate who did the walking.