McGovern among presidential losers featured in TV series

Talk about it

Mitchell native and resident George McGovern is among the losing presidential candidates featured in an upcoming cable television series.

C-SPAN is launching a series called “The Contenders,” which will focus on men who ran unsuccessfully for the White House but succeeded in altering the political landscape.

It opens at 7 p.m. Friday with a show on Henry Clay, the powerful Kentucky lawmaker who was a three-time loser in bids for the presidency.

Two South Dakota natives, Hubert Humphrey, who was a Doland native, and George McGovern, will be featured in the 14-part series.

Promotional and background interviews with McGovern were taped at the McGovern Center for Leadership and Public Service on the Dakota Wesleyan University campus Wednesday and Thursday. The McGovern show will air live from DWU’s McGovern Library at 7 p.m. Dec. 2.

“I think it’s great,” McGovern said Friday. “I was very impressed with the team they sent here. They did a lengthy interview.”

He said the series will make a strong case that many of the people who sought the White House and failed still had an enduring impact in the United States.

“I’m excited about it,” McGovern said. “You know, we’ve had a lot of good people run for president who never made it to the White House. I endorse it heartily.”

McGovern was the 1972 Democratic nominee for president, four years after the party nominated his fellow senator, Humphrey. Both men were defeated by Republican Richard Nixon, who carried traditionally Republican South Dakota in 1968 and 1972.

McGovern, who at 89 is the longest-surviving losing presidential candidate of a major political party in American history, has remained a figure on the national political stage since that campaign.

The C-SPAN series makes the case that the 14 losing candidates profiled in the series made significant impacts.

“They ran for office. They lost the election … and changed history,” a promo for the series states at www.cspan.org.

Tags: george mcgovern, news, politics, television, entertainment