Dan Kuykendall
| Dan Kuykendall | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th district |
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In office January 3, 1967 – January 3, 1973 |
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| Preceded by | George W. Grider |
| Succeeded by | District abolished |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 8th district |
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In office January 3, 1973 – January 3, 1975 |
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| Preceded by | Ed Jones |
| Succeeded by | Harold Ford, Sr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
July 9, 1924 Cherokee, Texas |
| Died | June 12, 2008 (aged 83) Memphis, Tennessee |
| Nationality | American |
| Political party | Republican |
| Alma mater | Texas A&M University |
| Military service | |
| Service/branch | United States Army Air Corps |
| Years of service | 1942–1945 |
| Rank | Lieutenant |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Dan Heflin Kuykendall (July 9, 1924 – June 12, 2008) was a U.S. Representative from Tennessee from 1967 to 1975. He was a member of the Republican Party.
Kuykendall was born in Cherokee, Texas. He was a pilot in World War II from 1942 to 1945. He graduated from Texas A&M University in 1947. Employment with Procter & Gamble brought him to Memphis, Tennessee in 1955.
Kuykendall's first involvement with Republican politics came in 1960, when he volunteered for the Richard Nixon campaign. He first came to attention two years later, when he managed former city councilman Ed Davis' campaign for Congress in the Memphis-based 9th Congressional District. In that race, Davis came within only 1,200 votes of defeating 22-year incumbent Clifford Davis. In 1963 and 1964, he served as a co-chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, which was returning to prominence after years of irrelevance. This was largely due to a massive crossover of white voters to the Republicans—the same factor which fueled Davis' near-upset in 1962.
In 1964 he won the Republican nomination for United States Senate and ran against incumbent Democrat Albert Gore, Sr. Kuykendall was initially given little chance against Gore. For most of the 20th century, the Republican Party had been practically nonexistent outside of traditionally heavily Republican East Tennessee, and most statewide races were decided in the Democratic primary. However, Kuykendall ran a surprisingly competitive race, taking 46 percent of the vote to Gore's 53 percent—the closest a Republican had come to winning a full term in the Senate since Reconstruction. The margin would have almost certainly been closer than that if not for the massive landslide, both nationally and in Tennessee, by President Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater.
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