William Henry Harrison (Wyoming politician)

William Henry Harrison (August 10, 1896 – October 8, 1990) was an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative from Wyoming on three occasions; from 1951 to 1955, from 1961 to 1965, and from 1967 to 1969. A member of the Republican Party, Harrison was also his party's nominee in a special election and a general election for the U.S. Senate, both held on November 2, 1954.

Harrison was a grandson of the 23rd U.S. President, Benjamin Harrison, and a great-great-grandson of the 9th U.S. President, William Henry Harrison.

As of 2018, he is the last of his famous family to hold elective office.

Political career
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 10, 1896, Harrison was raised in Indiana, Washington, D.C., and Nebraska. During World War I, he served in the United States Army as a Private in the Air Corps.

He attended the University of Nebraska in 1919 and 1920, studied law, was admitted to the Indiana bar in 1925, and practiced in Indianapolis until 1936. He served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 1927 to 1929.

In 1937, Harrison moved to Wyoming, where he practiced law in Sheridan County. From 1945 to 1950 he served in the Wyoming House of Representatives from Sheridan County. He served as the Secretary to the Wyoming Interim Committee from 1947 to 1950. (The Interim Committee is made up of members of the Wyoming House and Senate and is empowered to act on certain matters when the full legislature is not in session.)

Harrison was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1950. Re-elected in 1952, he served from 1951 to 1955. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1954, but ran as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Sen. Edward D. Crippa from Wyoming. Crippa had been appointed in June 1954 following the suicide of Sen. Lester C. Hunt. As such, there was a simultaneous special election to fill the remaining months of Hunt's term. Harrison lost both the special election and the general election by three points to former Sen. Joseph C. O'Mahoney.

After his loss, Harrison served as the regional administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency from 1955 to 1956 and as liaison officer for the agency from 1957 to 1958. He was returned to Congress in 1960 and re-elected in 1962, and he served from 1961 to 1965. He was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election in 1964, finding himself amongst dozens of Republican members of Congress swept out of office in the landslide brought about by the 1964 presidential election, in which President Lyndon B. Johnson was elected to a full term over Sen. Barry Goldwater from Arizona by over twenty-two points.

Harrison ran again in 1966 and was elected to the Ninetieth U.S. Congress, serving from 1967 to 1969. He was denied re-nomination in 1968, losing the Republican primary that year to John S. Wold by two points. Harrison is, thus far, the only incumbent U.S. representative to lose re-nomination in Wyoming.

Harrison was appointed by President Richard Nixon to the Federal Renegotiation Board on July 23, 1969, and served until 1971. (The board was created in 1951 to review the annual profits of defense contractors, determine whether profits under no-bid contracts were excessive, and negotiate reductions. It was abolished in 1978.)

In retirement, Harrison lived in North Redington Beach, Florida, until his death in St. Petersburg in 1990. He was buried at Sheridan Municipal Cemetery in Sheridan County, Wyoming.

Ancestors
Many of Harrison's family members were politicians:
 * His paternal great-great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Harrison V (1726–1791), signed the United States Declaration of Independence, and served as the fifth Governor of Virginia from 1781 to 1784
 * His paternal great-great-grandfather, William Henry Harrison (1773–1841), served as the 9th U.S. President in 1841, having earlier served as a U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1825 to 1828, as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1816 to 1819, and as the inaugural governor of the Indiana Territory from 1801 to 1812
 * His paternal great-grandfather, John Scott Harrison (1804–1878), served as a U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1853 to 1857
 * His paternal grandfather, Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901), served as the 23rd U.S. President from 1889 to 1893, having earlier served as a U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1881 to 1887
 * His maternal grandfather, Alvin Saunders (1817–1899), served as a U.S. Senator from Nebraska from 1877 to 1883, as the tenth and last governor of the Nebraska Territory from 1861 to 1867, and as a member of the Iowa Senate from 1854 to 1856 and from 1858 to 1860
 * His father, Russell Benjamin Harrison (1854–1936) served as a member of the Indiana Senate from 1925 to 1933 and as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1921 to 1925