John Nance Garner was an American politician who was the 32nd Vice President of the United States from 1933 to 1941, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in charge. Garner was a U.S. Congressman for 15 terms in a row. His peers called him “Cactus Jack,” and he was the Speaker of the House when he was picked for vice president. John Nance Garner grew up in Texas, went to law school, and then started working as a lawyer in Texas. Over time, he became interested in politics and joined the Democratic Party. Garner was elected to be the county judge of Uvalde County. He then went on to serve in the state legislature, where he spent his first terms learning about politics. In 1902, he was chosen to serve in the U.S. Congress. From the same district, he was re-elected 14 times in a row, and he did so for the next 30 years. After that, the Democrats chose Garner to be their floor leader, and he also became the Speaker of the House. Franklin Roosevelt chose Garner to be the 32nd Vice President of the United States in 1932 after Garner had failed to get the Democratic nomination for president. During his first term, Garner used his skills to get New Deal legislation through Congress, but by the time he was re-elected as vice president, his relationship with Roosevelt had gotten worse. During his second term, he fought against the New Deal. After his second term ended in 1941, he moved to Texas and lived there until he died in his 90s.
Early years and childhood
John Nance Garner was born in the village of Detroit in Red River County, Texas, on November 22, 1868. His parents, John Nance Garner III and Sarah Jane Guest were farmers.
Garner went to high school in Blossom Prairie, Texas. After he graduated, he went to Nashville, Tennessee, to attend Vanderbilt University. But after one semester, he dropped out and decided to become a lawyer.
After that, he went to law school and became a lawyer in Texas in 1890. After that, he moved to Uvalde County, Texas, and started to work as a lawyer there.
John Garner’s Career
Soon after he started working as a lawyer, Garner joined the well-known Democratic Party. Garner was chosen as the Texas State Official Judge from Uvalde County in 1893. He held this position until 1896.
In 1898, he ran for office and was chosen to be a member of the Texas House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1900 and served in the state legislature for two more terms, from 1900 to 1902.
During this time, a new Congressional District was made, and in 1903, Garner was elected to represent Texas’s 15th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was re-elected 14 times from the same district, and he served in Congress for the next 30 years, until 1933.
He was the leader of the Democrats in the minority in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1929 to 1931.
Then, during the 72nd Congress, from 1931 to 1933, he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Garner ran for President of the United States at the Democratic National Convention in 1932. But when Garner realized he didn’t have enough votes, he let go of his delegates from Texas and California to help Roosevelt win the nomination for president.
Roosevelt then gave Garner a reward by putting him on the ticket and making him his running mate. John Garner was made vice president of the United States in November 1932.
In March 1933, Garner was sworn in as the 32nd Vice President of the United States. He was a Democrat and worked for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was a Democrat. He was re-elected vice president in 1936, and he held that position until 1941.
During his first term as Vice President, Garner used his ability to persuade to help get several important bills passed. His colleagues in Congress respected him a lot, and he helped get the “New Deal” program passed.
But by 1937, after being re-elected as Vice President, Garner and Roosevelt were at odds over his plans to expand the Supreme Court and a number of other political and administrative issues. After that, Garner worked to stop some of the administration’s plans to change the law.
Because the President and Vice President didn’t get along, Roosevelt didn’t choose Garner as his running mate when he ran for a third term. In 1940, Garner ran for the Democratic nomination for president but lost. At the end of his second term in office, he left politics for good.
When Garner got out of politics, he moved back to his home in Uvalde County, where he spent the last 26 years of his life with his family.
Works of note
As a member of Congress, Garner played a big part in getting the bill passed. People thought he was one of the most powerful politicians in Congress because he backed the graduated income tax and the Federal Reserve System.
In 1937, he was against President Roosevelt’s plan to increase the size of the Supreme Court. He helped defeat the plan because it gave the President too much power.
Personal History and Legacies
Mariette Rheiner, the daughter of a farmer, ran against Garner in the election for County Judge of Uvalde County in 1893. In November 1895, John married Mariette in Sabinal, Texas, which was two years after they met. They were lucky to have a son, Tully Charles Garner.
John Nance Garner died in Uvalde, Texas, on November 7, 1967, when he was 98 years old, just a few days before he would have turned 99. He is still the Vice President or President who has lived the longest in the history of the United States. Garner was buried in Texas at the Uvalde Cemetery.
Estimated Net worth
Unknown.