Ben Barnes (politician)
Ben Frank Barnes is an American real estate magnate, politician, and crisis manager, who formerly served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from 1965 to 1969 and the 36th Lieutenant Governor of Texas from January 21, 1969 to January 16, 1973, for two two-year terms. He was a vice-chair and top fund-raiser of John Kerry's presidential campaign. Barnes was one of only eight persons who raised over $500,000 for Kerry.
Early life and education
Barnes was born on April 17, 1938, in Gorman in Eastland County, Texas, to peanut farmer B.F. Barnes and Ina B. Carrigan. He was raised with a younger brother, Rick.Barnes' family owned a peanut farm in Comanche County, in central Texas. They cultivated about 40 acres, growing peanuts and corn and raising hogs and chickens. The family was poor, having no working electricity until 1946, when government agents brought electricity to Texas farms as a result of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Rural Electrification Administration.
Barnes graduated from De Leon High School in 1956. After high school, Barnes enrolled for one semester at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, followed by a semester at Tarleton College in Stephenville, Texas. During that spring, he married his high school sweetheart, Martha Morgan. He then spent the following summer in Climax, Colorado, working at the molybdenum mine there.
In 1957, at the age of 20, Barnes began studying at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was on the Dean's List for the Business School. Barnes took several jobs to pay his way through college, including a door-to-door job selling Electrolux vacuum cleaners.
Political career
While a student at The University of Texas, Barnes worked at the Texas State Health Department. After discovering some financial irregularities that led to the indictment of the state health commissioner, Barnes became interested in politics. At the age of 21, Barnes went back to his home area of the state and ran for state representative, pulling off an upset victory. Advancing quickly through the Texas legislature, by 1963, Barnes was chairman of the powerful Rules Committee. In 1965, the Texas Junior Chamber of Commerce named Barnes as one of "Five Outstanding Young Texans" and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recognized Barnes as one of the "Ten Outstanding Young Men in America" in 1970.Barnes served as state Speaker of the House in Texas from 1965-1969. The position opened when Governor John B. Connally, Jr., named Speaker Byron M. Tunnell to succeed the retiring Ernest O. Thompson on the Texas Railroad Commission. Barnes was chosen by House members to succeed Tunnell and hence became the youngest Speaker in Texas history. As Speaker, Barnes sought to make improvements in education, passing legislation that increased teacher salaries, bumped up the state's fiscal support of public universities, and created the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to oversee and coordinate all the state's institutions of higher learning. Barnes won passage of a minimum wage standard for farm workers, and was also active on environmental issues, winning approval for clean air and water legislation.
In 1966, Barnes was the President of the National Legislative Conference and in 1967, was voted President of the Southern Legislative Conference – the youngest person and first Texan to receive the honor. He was also U.S. representative to the NATO Conference in 1967, and the United Nations Representative to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968.
Barnes served as Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1969-1973, a post often called the most powerful position in the Texas state government because the lieutenant governor can block a governor's agenda from being considered by the Texas State Senate.
Sharpstown scandal
In 1971, Barnes was caught up along with the Democratic Party in Texas in the political fallout of the Sharpstown scandal, though he stated he had no knowledge of the involvement of several state senators in the scheme. While he was not brought to trial, the scandal contributed to an unsuccessful run for governor and Barnes' exit from public office.Real estate career
During the 1970s and 1980s, Barnes developed a multimillion-dollar real estate empire which included the development of such projects as Southwest Parkway and Barton Creek Country Club in Austin. The collapse of oil prices in the mid- to late- 1980s and its effect on the Texas real estate market forced Barnes to file for bankruptcy, following the financial collapse of the Barnes/Connally Partnership, a real estate firm.Lobbying and business career
In the late 1990s, Barnes began working with GTECH Corporation, a company that operated lotteries in 37 states including Texas.Barnes is the founder of the Ben Barnes Group, a business consulting and real estate development firm offering expertise in crisis management, legislative processes and strategy, legal issues, and public-private partnerships. Clients range from major Fortune 500 companies to small family-owned businesses, as from a variety of both international and domestic industries. The Ben Barnes Group maintains offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Austin, Texas.
Barnes has also served as a consultant, director, or chairman of more than two dozen companies, including SBC Communications, American Airlines, Dallas Bank and Trust, Grumman Systems Support Corporation, and Laredo National Bank.
Personal life
Barnes was married to Martha Morgan in 1957, and they had two children together: Greg and Amy. In 1989, Barnes married Melanie Harper. Barnes and Harper adopted two daughters: Elena Barnes and Blaire Barnes. On September 14, 2019, Ben Barnes and Elizabeth Moore McDermott married at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Nantucket.Awards and volunteering
In 1995, The University of Texas named him a Distinguished Alumnus and an endowed fellowship was created in his name at UT's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.Barnes serves on the board of several non-profit organizations, including the Boys & Girls Club of the Austin Area, the Roosevelt Institute and the Development Board of the University of Texas. Barnes also serves as Vice-Chairman of the LBJ Foundation.