Members of the Arizona congressional delegation urged Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to approve installing a statue of 1964 GOP presidential candidate and former Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) in the Capitol.
In a letter to Boehner, the 11 lawmakers noted that the Arizona state legislature had already approved replacing the statue of John Campbell Greenway, a mining and railroad executive, with an eight-foot bronze statue of Goldwater in Statuary Hall.
{mosads}”Senator Goldwater was a man of great personal integrity and unblemished honor. He put his country and our founding ideals before himself,” they wrote.
They also requested the unveiling take place around Arizona Statehood Day, which is on Feb. 14.
Goldwater served in the Senate for five terms. He won only six states – the Deep South and his home state of Arizona – and 36 percent of the popular vote in 1964. But his campaign’s “Southern strategy” of promoting states’ rights consequently changed the Republican Party’s regional coalition for decades to follow.
The proposed location, Statuary Hall, was previously used as the House chamber from 1807 to 1857. It now houses a collection of statues representing each state, including Rosa Parks, Samuel Adams and Henry Clay.