Richard “Dick” Clark was a former U.S. senator who walked across the state of Iowa to meet residents in-person during his 1972 campaign.
- Died: September 20, 2023 (Who else died on September 20?)
- Details of death: Died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 95.
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Dick Clark’s legacy
Clark was a U.S. Army veteran who served in Europe during the Korean War. He earned his master’s from the University of Iowa in 1956, then became a professor at Upper Iowa University. Around this time, he began volunteering for the Democratic Party, collecting names and registering voters. His work helped bolster Democratic turnout in otherwise Republican areas, which drew the attention of the wider party.
In 1971, Clark was drafted to help run the 1972 U.S. Senate campaign of attorney John Culver, but when Culver dropped out because he thought he had no chance of winning, Clark ran in his place. Initially trailing in the polls by a wide margin, he set out to walk across Iowa – largely across Route 30 – meeting the people he intended to serve along the way. His 1,300-mile-long trek worked, not only drawing him national attention, but also earning him an overwhelming victory in a Republican state.
Clark was on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and had a particular focus on injustices in African countries. He penned the Clark Amendment, which barred U.S. aid to private military groups in Angola. He was also a staunch opponent of apartheid in South Africa and led congressional delegations on trips there to meet with opposition leaders. As a result, Republican Roger Jepsen, Clark’s opponent in the 1978 election, derided Clark as “the Senator from Africa.” Clark lost reelection by a narrow margin. After his time in the Senate, he briefly served as an ambassador under President Jimmy Carter before becoming a senior fellow at the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies.
Tributes to Dick Clark
Full obituary: Des Moines Register
