Johnson, Lyndon B. (1908–1973)

LYNDON B. JOHNSON WAS one of only two persons to have held all four federal elective offices and the only one to have served as a legislative leader. Lyndon Baines Johnson was born August 27, 1908, near Stonewall, Texas, the oldest of the five children of Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., and Rebekah (Baines) Johnson. Sam Johnson was a rancher who had served in the legislature, as had his father. In 1913, the family moved to Johnson City, where Johnson graduated from high school in 1924. Johnson married Claudia Alta Taylor on November 17, 1934, in San Antonio. They had two daughters, Lynda Bird and Luci Baines. Since Johnson's wife was always known by the nickname “Lady Bird,” all four had the initials LBJ. Johnson said he did this deliberately, to encourage the public to think of him by his initials the way they did of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR).

In 1932, he was hired as a secretary in the Washington, D.C., office of U.S. Representative Richard M. Kleberg. This led to a position with the National Youth Administration in 1935. In 1937, Johnson won a special election to the U.S. House. He was reelected in the general election of 1938 and subsequently, through 1946. He lost a 1941 special election to fill a vacancy for the U.S. Senate. This was his only election defeat. After the attack on Pearl Harbor on 1941, Johnson became the first member of Congress to enter military service, keeping a promise he made to voters that if he ever voted to send troops to war, he would go too. However, he did not resign his House seat and needed the consent of the body in order to do this. He served as a lieutenant commander in the navy in the Pacific and was decorated for gallantry under fire.

In 1948, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate from Texas in a tumultuous and very close race. Johnson's margin was only 87 votes. From this, Johnson acquired the dubious nickname “Landslide Lyndon.” It was only revealed after Johnson's death that the election had been fixed. Johnson had no trouble winning reelection in 1954 and 1960, the latter contest conterminous with his election to the vice presidency. Johnson advanced quickly within the Democratic ranks. He became minority whip after only two years in the Senate and minority leader two years after that. Johnson became majority leader, the most important person in the Senate, when the Democrats captured the majority in the 1954 election. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower found Johnson easier to deal with than did the Republican Congressional leaders. Rowland Evans and Robert Novak describe Johnson's method of persuasion, “the Johnson treatment,” which he honed in these years and which proved most useful to him as president: