Wendell Ford: Coal Severance Tax, Tobacco Price Supports, NAFTA No Vote

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Wendell Hampton Ford was born near Owensboro, Kentucky, in 1924, the son of a state senator. He left the University of Kentucky to join the Army in World War II, serving as an administrative noncommissioned officer and rising to technical sergeant, then joined his father's insurance business and commanded a Kentucky National Guard company that became a tank company. After working for Bert Combs's 1959 campaign for governor, he won a state Senate seat in 1965 by 305 votes and the 1967 lieutenant governor primary by 631 over Combs's objections, then served under Republican Governor Louie Nunn while rebuilding the Democratic organization.

Ford beat Combs in the 1971 primary and won the governorship, imposing a coal severance tax and gas tax while exempting food from the sales tax, creating super cabinets, bringing the University of Louisville into the state system, and ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment in a 1972 special session. He also faced criticism over patronage. In 1974 he unseated Senator Marlow Cook, then weathered a four year probe of an insurance commission scheme in which he was never charged. Over 24 Senate years he protected tobacco, co-founded the National Guard Caucus with Kit Bond, rose to Democratic whip, and voted against NAFTA. He is the only Kentuckian to serve successively as lieutenant governor, governor, and senator, and he died in 2015.

• Cook resigned a few days early so Ford could be sworn in with extra seniority over other freshmen.
• He carried all 120 Kentucky counties with 74 percent of the vote in 1986.
• On the Joint Committee on Printing he saved millions through volume printing and recycled paper.
• He won an exemption for tobacco from the Consumer Product Safety Act.
• In the 1998 tobacco settlement talks he defended the price support program while Mitch McConnell sought a buyout.