Doug Harlan

Douglas Sloan Harlan
Born	1943 Place of birth missing
Died	November 7, 2008 San Antonio, Texas, USA
Residence	San Antonio, Texas
Alma mater	Rice University Duke University University of Texas at Austin University of Texas School of Law
Occupation	Lawyer, political consultant; Political pundit, Journalist, Educator
Political party	Republican

Douglas Sloan Harlan, known as Doug Harlan (1943 – November 8, 2008), was a lawyer, Republican political consultant, journalist, scholar, educator, and local official from San Antonio, Texas.

Harlan graduated in 1964 from Rice University in Houston and received a master's degree from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He then procured a Ph.D. in political science in 1968 from the University of Texas at Austin. UT published his dissertation Party and Campaign in a Congressional Election: A Case Study of Reciprocal Dependency. In 1974, he received a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.

Harlan was an early supporter of U.S. Senator John Tower, whom he worked successfully to reelect in 1966. That same year, Harlan campaigned for Republican D. C. Norwood of Wichita Falls in Texas's 13th congressional district, but the incumbent Democrat Graham B. Purcell, Jr., won once more. In 1970, he worked in the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign waged by Tower's preferred candidate, Republican Paul Eggers of Dallas against the incumbent Democrat Preston Smith of Lubbock. In 1972 and 1974, he waged his own unsuccessful races for Texas's 21st congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives. He polled 43 percent in the race against Democrat O. C. Fisher of Junction, Texas. Paul Burka of Texas Monthly said Harlan's race against Fisher was "one of the first indications that the dominance of the rural conservative Democrats in Texas politics could not be sustained."