How Did Harry Flood Byrd Run A Presidential Campaign?

Harry Flood Byrd Senior was born on June 10, 1887, in Martinsburg, West Virginia. He went to school at Shenandoah Valley academy up until he dropped out of school to help his father out with his failing newspaper business, Winchester Evening Star. Within a year Byrd was able to rejuvenate the company by using his good sense of business skills. He made the business so successful that the once failing newspaper company was soon worth to be about 2,000 dollars (it is to be around 66,000 dollars in 2015), he also sold apples and ran a turnpike near by his hometown. In 1925, he competed against a republican candidate, S. Harris Hoge, to become the governor of Virginia. Byrd won the election and was sworn into office on February 1, 1925. During
This caused Byrd to run a presidential campaign in 1932. Although he did not win the election, this did provide him an opportunity. In March 1933, Bryd was appointed to the United States senate to succeed Claude Augustus Swanson. While in the senate worked to reduce federal spending, balance budgets, and give more rights to the states. Byrd was known for his “pay-as-you-go” policy, which encouraged Congress to offset the cost of legislation that reduced revenues as a means to not expand the deficit . However, he was best known for the Massive Resistance when the Congress decided to overrule Plessy v. Ferguson, “separate but equal,” with Brown v. Board of
In 2015, Delegator William J. Howell, political heir of the Byrd organization and Virginia republican politician, did not want to expand medicaid to the citizens who truly need health care. Howell “is not interested in creative or market-based ways to expand Medicaid and in variations on the Medicaid programs” (Board, 2015). This is because Medicaid is part of Obamacare and Howell strongly opposes Obamacare. Another conservative republican, Mike Pence, also strongly opposed medicaid. However, Pence bargained that the citizens who have medicaid must “pay monthly premiums and, for those who make unnecessary trips to the emergency room, copays” (Board, 2015). The Democrats fear that this new bargain will steer people away from having a healthcare, but Obamacare agreed to the new bargain so the people who have medicaid will be covered. This is a political massive resistance for the citizens who truly need medicaid for