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Reubin O'Donovan Askew (born September 11, 1928) is an American politician. He served as the thirty-seventh governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979 as a member of the Democratic Party.
Askew was born in Muskogee, Muskogee County, Oklahoma. In 1937, he and his mother moved to Pensacola, Florida. In 1946, he entered the U.S. Army as a paratrooper and, in 1948, was discharged in the rank of Sergeant; he attended Florida State University and the University of Florida and served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1953. In 1956, Askew was elected as Assisant County Solicitor of Escambia County, Florida. In 1958, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives and, in 1962, to the Florida Senate, from 1969 to 1970 he served as President Pro Tempore of the Florida State Senate.
In 1970, Askew was elected governor, and re-elected in 1974 making him the first Florida governor to serve two consecutive four year terms. As governor, Askew was one of the first of the 'New South' governors, at the same time as Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia and later Bill Clinton of Arkansas. He supported school desegregation and the controversial idea of busing to achieve racial balance; in addition he named the first black Justice of the State Supreme Court, the first woman to the State Cabinet as well as the first black to the State Cabinet in a hundred years.
Askew's national stature in the Democratic party grew and, in 1972, he was keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention in Miami. He was offered Vice Presidential spot on the Democratic ticket with Presidential Nominee George McGovern, but turned it down. He later accepted an appointment as Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Ambassadorial Appointments by President Jimmy Carter. In 1979, Askew stepped down as governor to assumed the role of United States Trade Representative, serving until the end of the Carter Administration in 1981.
He joined a Miami law firm and at the same time began to organize a Presidential bid. He withdrew early when in February 1984, after he came in last in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary. In 1987, he declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate, however in May 1988, he withdrew from the contest citing lack of fundraising.
Askew is the namesake of the Reubin O'D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy at the Florida State University, and teaches government at several Florida universities.
External links
Official Governor's portrait and biography from the State of Florida (http://dhr.dos.state.fl.us/museum/collections/governors/about.cfm?id=44)
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