John B. Anderson

John B. Anderson (1922-), independent presidential candidate and for 20 years the Republican member of the United States Congress from the 16th district of Illinois. A fiscal conservative, Anderson championed traditionally liberal social programs.

Anderson was born in Rockford, Illinois, the son of a grocer. His upbringing was frugal and deeply religious. He served in the United States Army in World War II (1939-1945) and received a law degree from the University of Illinois in 1946. He went on to receive a master of law degree from Harvard University in 1949, and he then worked for the United States Foreign Service in Germany for three years. After a stint of private law practice in Rockford, Anderson was elected on the Republican ticket as Illinois state's attorney in 1956 and as congressman in 1960.

For his first three terms in congress, Anderson was staunchly conservative, supporting his party against such Democratic programs as food stamps, public service jobs, aid to mass transit, Medicare, and foreign aid (see Democratic Party). In 1968, however, with riots erupting in Washington, D.C., and in other cities after the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., Anderson bucked the Republican leadership. He cast the tie-breaking, and only Republican, vote in the Rules Committee to send a civil rights open-housing bill to the floor—a bill whose passage he then helped assure. Thereafter he was a champion of civil rights, anti-poverty legislation, federal funds for abortions, and equal rights for women.

On some issues, Anderson was more conservative. He opposed pro-labor legislation and most government subsidies. He also supported the Vietnam War (1959-1975) consistently. Later, however, Anderson deeply regretted his pro-Vietnam War position, and toward the end of his years in Congress he also opposed the funding of most new weapons systems and draft registration. Anderson was one of the first Republicans to urge President Richard M. Nixon to resign as a result of the Watergate scandal. Thereafter Anderson became increasingly estranged from the Republican party.

In 1980, the Liberal Party nominated Anderson for president, the first time since 1944 that the party had failed to support the Democratic candidate. He achieved second place in the Republican primaries in Massachusetts and Vermont and third in Wisconsin, but in all won only 59 delegates to the Republican convention, not nearly enough to win the nomination. Anderson chose to continue in the race as an independent candidate. On election day he received 7 percent of the popular vote.

Anderson is also the author of several books, including Between Two Worlds: A Congressman’s Choice (1970) and A Proper Institution: Guaranteeing Televised Presidential Debates, (1988).