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He led the state occasion from 1971 to 1980, overseeing the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
Don Fowler, a former chair of the Democratic National Committee and mainstay of South Carolina and nationwide politics for many years, has died. He was 85.
Trav Robertson, chairman of South Carolina’s Democratic Party, mentioned on Twitter that Fowler died Tuesday night time, calling him the “Democrat’s Democrat.”
No trigger was talked about, however Fowler’s spouse mentioned on Facebook that he had been within the hospital this week.
DNC Associate Chairman Jaime Harrison mentioned Fowler had leukemia.
Fowler, a local of Spartanburg, attended Wofford College, the place he performed basketball and baseball, and earned grasp’s and doctorate levels in political science from the University of Kentucky.
He led the state occasion from 1971 to 1980, overseeing the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.
Fowler served as nationwide chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997, operating the occasion’s day-to-day operations.
Part of that tenure additionally included defending an unsuccessful authorized problem from candidate Lyndon LaRouche, whom Fowler mentioned was not a bona fide Democrat because of anti-Semitic expressions and different actions, instructing state events to not vote for him.
Fowler was additionally accused of however not charged with contacting the CIA a few businessman and occasion donor, notably telling US Senate inquisitors, “I have in the middle of the night, high noon, late in the afternoon, early in the morning, every hour of the day, for months now searched my memory about conversations with the CIA. And I have no memory, no memory of any conversation with the CIA.”
After many years of acquaintance, together with working collectively on the DNC and his communications agency, Fowler and his spouse, Carol, married in 2005.
Two years later, Carol Fowler would grow to be chair of the state occasion.
Their house close to Columbia’s Five Points district grew to become a daily cease for most of the Democrats vying for his or her occasion’s consideration within the extended run-up to the pivotal February 29 main, the primary balloting to happen within the South.
Each occasion, which felt like a fundraiser however was free to anybody to attend, featured the couple introducing a candidate like Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar or Bill deBlasio to dozens of individuals crowded into their lounge, usually spilling right into a entrance hallway.
Don Fowler remained a mainstay in Democratic politics, serving as a sounding board for chairmen together with Robertson and Harrison, who chaired the occasion in the course of the 2016 president cycle and mounted a fundraising record-shattering problem to US Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina this yr.
“He and I were plotting, if I become DNC chair, the things that we’d need to work on,” Harrison advised The Associated Press on Wednesday.
“I said if that does happen, I’m going to have to lean on you and Carol like I always do. … It’s just going to be hard not having Don around.”
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