United States Senator
In 1964, Harris ran to serve the remainder of the Senate term of Robert S. Kerr, who had died in office. With Kerr's family's support, he defeated former governor J. Howard Edmondson, who had appointed himself to succeed Kerr, in the Democratic primary.[1][2] The general election was a high-profile campaign against the Republican nominee, legendary Oklahoma Sooners football coach Bud Wilkinson.[2] Both parties invited political leaders from out of state to campaign for their nominees. Republicans brought former Vice President Richard Nixon to campaign for Wilkinson, while Harris hosted President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady Lady Bird Johnson.[4] Harris defeated Wilkinson by 21,390 votes, becoming one of the youngest members of the U.S. Senate. At 33 years old, he was the youngest senator-elect in Oklahoma history.[1] His Senate tenure began on November 4, 1964.[5]
Harris firmly supported President Johnson's Great Society programs, which were often unpopular in Oklahoma.[2] He voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965,[6] and while he missed the votes pertaining to the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1967 (he was away on official Senate business) and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 (he was absent because of illness), he supported both; it was announced on the Senate floor that, if he had been present, he would have voted for Marshall's confirmation[7] and the 1968 Act.[8] Harris was present for the vote on the motion to end the filibuster conducted by senators who opposed the 1968 Act, and voted to end the filibuster so that the Act could be voted on.[9]
Despite being quite liberal in an increasingly conservative state, Harris was reelected to a full term in 1966, defeating attorney Pat J. Patterson by 47,572 votes.[1] Patterson had tried to unseat Harris by announcing his support for a constitutional amendment proposed by Senator Everett Dirksen to allow school boards to provide for prayers in public schools. Dirksen's amendment had enthusiastic political support in Oklahoma, but Harris opposed it in a public letter: "I believe in the separation of church and state and I believe prayer and Bible reading should be voluntary".[1]
In July 1967, Johnson appointed Harris to the Kerner Commission.[3][10] He quickly became one of its most active members and was deeply concerned about economically deprived Black urban residents. He also strongly supported agricultural programs, the Arkansas River Navigation Program, and the Indian health programs, which were all very popular in Oklahoma.[1]
Harris briefly chaired the Democratic National Committee, preceded and succeeded in that position by Larry O'Brien.[3] He was one of the final two candidates presidential nominee Hubert Humphrey considered as his running mate in 1968; Humphrey chose U.S. Senator Edmund Muskie because of Harris's young age of 37.[11] According to O'Brien, Humphrey vacillated between the two until finally choosing Muskie at the last minute. Harris broke with Johnson and Humphrey over the Vietnam War.[1]
In 1970, Harris was a major player in the legislation to restore to the inhabitants of the Taos Pueblo 48,000 ac (19,425 ha) of mountain land that President Theodore Roosevelt had taken and designated as the Carson National Forest early in the 20th century.[12] The struggle was particularly emotive since this return of Taos land included Blue Lake, which the Pueblo consider sacred. To pass the bill, Harris forged a bipartisan alliance with President Richard Nixon, with whom Harris sharply disagreed on numerous other issues, notably the Vietnam War. In doing so, he had to overcome powerful fellow Democratic Senators Clinton Anderson and Henry M. Jackson, who firmly opposed returning the land. As recounted by Harris's wife, LaDonna, who was actively involved in the struggle, when the bill finally passed and came up to be signed by the president, Nixon looked up and said, "I can't believe I'm signing a bill that was sponsored by Fred Harris."[13]
In 1971, Harris was the only senator to vote against confirming Lewis F. Powell Jr. as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He opposed Powell because he considered him elitist and to have a weak record on civil rights.[14] Harris and J. William Fulbright were the only two Southern senators to vote not to confirm Justice William Rehnquist.[15]
Harris called for the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission.[16]
