Latter Day Saint political history

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This is a chronological listing of significant events surrounding Latter Day Saints seeking or winning political office. It refers primarily to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), but also some members of other Latter Day Saint movement religions, such as Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS). In addition to listing events chronologically, political firsts are noted. This list is very incomplete.

John Corrill elected to the Missouri House of Representatives.
This was the first Latter Day Saint elected to a state office in any state.
William B. Smith elected to the Illinois House of Representatives.
This was the first Latter Day Saint elected to a state office in Illinois.
This was the first time a member of the Smith Family was elected to office.
Joseph Smith elected Mayor of Nauvoo.
Joseph Smith declares himself a candidate for President of the United States. He is assassinated during his campaign. [1]
This was the first Latter Day Saint to run for president.
This was the first Latter Day Saint assassinated in office (as Mayor of Nauvoo).
Brigham Young is appointed Governor of Utah Territory.
This is the first Latter Day Saint to hold a U.S. governorship.
Jefferson Hunt is elected to the California State Assembly.
This is the first Latter Day Saint elected to state office in California.
James J. Strang is elected to the Michigan Legislature.
This is the first Latter Day Saint elected to state office in Michigan.
James J. Strang is reelected to the Michigan Legislature.
Brigham Young removed from office as Governor of Utah.
Utah gains statehood.
Martha Hughes Cannon first woman elected to any state senate in U.S. history (Utah).
Heber Manning Wells elected Utah Governor.
This is the first Latter Day Saint to be Utah governor since Brigham Young.
This is the first Latter Day Saint to be elected governor of any state.
Frank J. Cannon elected U.S. Senator from Utah
First Latter-day Saint elected to the Senate. (Cannon later left the LDS Church and became a bitter anti-Mormon.)
Reed Smoot elected to the U.S. Senate in Utah.
First LDS Church General Authority elected to the Senate.
Israel A. Smith elected to the Iowa State Legislature.
First direct descendant of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith to be elected to political office.
George Sutherland appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
J. Reuben Clark appointed U.S. Undersecretary of State.
J. Reuben Clark appointed U.S. Ambassador to Mexico.
Berkeley Bunker appointed U.S. Senator from Nevada.
First Latter Day Saint to hold national office from Nevada.
First Latter Day Saint U.S. Senator from outside Utah.
Berkeley Bunker elected to U.S. House of Representatives from Nevada.
Ezra Taft Benson appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
Ivy Baker Priest appointed U.S. Treasurer.
Stewart Udall appointed U.S. Secretary of the Interior.
George W. Romney elected Governor of Michigan.
George W. Romney declares candidacy for President of the United States (as Republican).
First Latter Day Saint to run for a major party's presidential nomination.
David Matthew Kennedy appointed U.S. Secretary of Treasury.
George W. Romney appointed U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
Mo Udall declares candidacy for President of the United States (as Democrat).
Paula Hawkins elected to U.S. Senate from Florida.
Terrel Bell appointed U.S. Secretary of Education.
Bay Buchanan baptized into LDS Church as sitting U.S. Treasurer.
Harry Reid wins election as a representative from Nevada.
Jake Garn becomes first sitting U.S. Senator to fly in space.
Harry Reid wins election as a Senator from Nevada.
Evan Mecham impeached and removed from office as Governor of Arizona
Three members of the Udall family serve in Congress simultaneously. Two are Latter-day Saint.
Orrin Hatch declares candidacy for President of the United States (as Republican).
Mitt Romney elected Governor of Massachusetts.
Harry Reid becomes the Democratic Leader of the United States Senate, and the Senate Minority leader
Michael O. Leavitt appointed U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Harry Reid becomes Senate Majority Leader
Mitt Romney announces his candidacy for the U.S. presidency.
Mitt Romney announces his candidacy for the U.S. presidency.
First Latter Day Saint to receive a major party's presidential nomination.
Jon Huntsman, Jr. announces his candidacy for the U.S. presidency.
Evan McMullin announces his candidacy for U.S. presidency.

See also

Related Research Articles

The history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is typically divided into three broad time periods:

  1. The early history during the lifetime of Joseph Smith which is in common with most Latter Day Saint movement churches,
  2. A "pioneer era" under the leadership of Brigham Young and his 19th-century successors, and
  3. A modern era beginning around the turn of the 20th century as the practice of plural marriage was discontinued.
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reed Smoot</span> American politician

Reed Smoot was an American politician, businessman, and apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. First elected by the Utah State Legislature to the U.S. Senate in 1902, he served as a Republican senator from 1903 to 1933. From his time in the Senate, Smoot is primarily remembered as the co-sponsor of the 1930 Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which increased almost 900 American import duties. Criticized at the time as having "intensified nationalism all over the world" by Thomas Lamont of J.P. Morgan & Co., Smoot–Hawley is widely regarded as one of the catalysts for the worsening Great Depression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harry Reid</span> American politician (1939–2021)

Harry Mason Reid Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Senate Majority Leader from 2007 to 2015.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John D. Lee</span> American LDS leader and mass murderer (1812–1877)

John Doyle Lee was an American pioneer and prominent early member of the Latter Day Saint Movement in Utah. Lee was later convicted as a mass murderer for his complicity in the Mountain Meadows massacre, sentenced to death and was executed in 1877.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Echo Hawk</span> Attorney and legal scholar

Larry J. Echo Hawk is an American attorney, legal scholar, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Echo Hawk served under U.S. President Barack Obama as the United States Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs from 2009 to 2012. He previously served as the Attorney General of Idaho from 1991 to 1995, the first Native American elected to the position, and spent two terms in the Idaho House of Representatives. In 2012, he was called as a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As of 2022, Echo Hawk is the last Democrat to have served as Attorney General of Idaho.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Udall family</span> American political family

The Udall family is a U.S. political family rooted in the American West. Its role in politics spans over 100 years and four generations. Udall politicians have been elected from four different states: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Oregon. If viewed as a combined entity, the Udall-Hunt-Lee family has been elected from six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States congressional delegations from Utah</span>

Since Utah became a U.S. state in 1896, it has sent congressional delegations to the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives. Each state elects two senators to serve for six years. Before the Seventeenth Amendment in 1913, senators were elected by the Utah State Legislature. Members of the House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms, one from each of Utah's four congressional districts. Before becoming a state, the Territory of Utah elected a non-voting delegate at-large to Congress from 1850 to 1896.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Q. Cannon</span> American religious leader (1827–1901)

George Quayle Cannon was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served in the First Presidency under four successive presidents of the church: Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. He was the church's chief political strategist, and was dubbed "the Mormon premier" and "the Mormon Richelieu" by the press. He was also a five-time Utah territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles W. Penrose</span> American Mormon leader

Charles William Penrose was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1904 to 1911. Penrose was also a member of the First Presidency, serving as a counselor to church presidents Joseph F. Smith and Heber J. Grant from 1911 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reed Smoot hearings</span> Congressional hearings regarding Latter-day Saint practices

The Reed Smoot hearings, also called Smoot hearings or the Smoot Case, were a series of Congressional hearings on whether the United States Senate should seat U.S. Senator Reed Smoot, who was elected by the Utah legislature in 1903. Smoot was an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of the top 15 leaders of the church. The hearings began in 1904 and continued until 1907, when the Senate voted. The vote fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to expel a member so he retained his seat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romney family</span> American family prominent in politics, business, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Romney family is prominent in U.S. politics. Notable Romney family members include George W. Romney (1907–1995), the 43rd Governor of Michigan (1963–1969), and his son, Mitt Romney. Mitt Romney was 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–2007), Republican nominee for President of the United States in 2012, and is currently U.S. Senator for Utah. George W. Romney's father was Gaskell Romney (1871–1955), and his mother was Anna Amelia Pratt (1876–1926). Anna's grandfather was the renowned early Latter-day Saint apostle Parley Parker Pratt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse N. Smith</span> American politician (1934–1906)

Jesse Nathaniel Smith was a Mormon pioneer, church leader, colonizer, politician and frontiersman. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was a first cousin to Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

<i>Presidents and Prophets</i>

Presidents and Prophets: The Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church is a book, spoken word album on CD, and direct-to-DVD documentary film of the same title by Michael K. Winder, a member of the Utah Board of State History. All three were published in 2007 by Covenant Communications, a division of Salt Lake City-based Deseret Book. Published during the 2008 presidential campaign candidacy of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, they provide historical context for the relationship between the Mormons and the American Presidency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Addison Pratt</span>

Addison Pratt was an early Latter-day Saint convert and missionary. Pratt preached in French Polynesia from 1844 to 1848 and from 1850 to 1852, and is recognized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the first Latter-day Saint missionary to preach in a language other than English.

Cecil Scott Grow is an American politician and religious leader and has been the State Senator for Idaho's District 14 since his appointment in August 2018. Grow has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Arizona</span> Aspect of church and state history

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the second-largest religious denomination in Arizona, behind the Roman Catholic Church. In 2019, the church reported 436,521 members in Arizona, about 6% of the state's population. According to the 2014 Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey, roughly 5% of Arizonans self-identify most closely with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and politics in the United States</span>

Early in its history, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had a series of negative encounters with the United States federal government. This led to decades of mistrust, armed conflict, and the eventual disincorporation of the church by an act of the United States Congress. The relationship between the church and the government eventually improved, and in recent times LDS Church members have served in leadership positions in Congress and held other important political offices. The LDS Church becomes involved in political matters if it perceives that there is a moral issue at stake and wields considerable influence on a national level with over a dozen members of Congress having membership in the church in the early 2000s, and about 80% of Utah state lawmakers identifying as Latter-day Saints.

References

  1. ↑ "The First Mormon Presidential Candidate". ABC News. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
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