Editing Dave Treen (section)

==Early political career==
===States' Rights party chair and presidential elector candidate in 1960===
In the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 U.S. presidential election]], Treen ran as an [[US Presidential Electors|elector]] for the [[Dixiecrat|States' Rights Party]], which supported Virginia U.S. Senator [[Harry F. Byrd, Sr.]], a segregationist Democrat, over the two mainstream candidates, Democrat [[John F. Kennedy]] and Republican [[Richard Nixon]].<ref name="Gambit 2009">{{cite web |last1=DuBos |first1=Clancy |title=Remembering Dave Treen |url=http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/remembering-dave-treen/Content?oid=1256479 |website=[[Gambit (newspaper)|Gambit]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150620065934/http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/remembering-dave-treen/Content?oid=1256479 |archive-date=June 20, 2015 |location=New Orleans}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-link1=Jeff Taylor (politician) |last1=Taylor |first1=Jeff |title=Politics on a Human Scale: The American Tradition of Decentralism |date=2013 |publisher=Lexington Books |location=Lanham, Maryland |isbn=978-0-7391-7575-0 |pages=243–244 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uVwrAQAAQBAJ&q=%22states+rights+party%22+%22Harry+f+byrd%22+1960&pg=PA244 |access-date=April 27, 2020|via=Google Books}}</ref> He also served as the chairman of the party's state central committee. Along with Treen, States' Rights electors from Louisiana included hard-line segregationists [[Leander Perez]] and [[William M. Rainach|Willie Rainach]].<ref>''Minden Press'', [[Minden, Louisiana]], November 7, 1960</ref> Treen warned at a rally that "[[Reconstruction era|Reconstruction]] of the South is far from being over" and that "the Democratic and Republican parties would reduce the laboring man to mere tools in a socialistic state."<ref>{{cite news |title=Edgerton Lashes Out at Two Wings of Republican Party |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89225739/the-town-talk/ |newspaper=The Town Talk |date=4 June 1961 |page=2 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref>

Ultimately, Kennedy won the election in Louisiana; the States' Rights ticket received 21 percent of the popular vote in Louisiana.<ref>{{cite web |title=1960 Presidential General Election Results - Louisiana |url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?f=0&fips=22&year=1960 |publisher=US Election Atlas |access-date=April 27, 2020}}</ref> But after the result was in, Treen called for the [[Louisiana Legislature]] to refuse to accept Kennedy's electors and instead send those of the States' Rights Party, unpledged, to the [[United States Electoral College|Electoral College]], saying there was no requirement that the legislature respect the popular vote.<ref>{{cite news |title=Legal Fight Brewing on 10 State Electors |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89226547/the-shreveport-journal/ |newspaper=The Shreveport Journal |date=23 November 1960 |page=3 |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |access-date=19 November 2021}}</ref> The legislature did not go along with Treen's idea.

Treen emphasized in 1961 that his states' rights group was not affiliated with the [[National States' Rights Party]], a group that he said was "a disgrace to the term 'states rights.'"<ref>{{cite news |author1=UPI |title=Louisiana States' Rights Blasts NSRP |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/227431784/ |work=Daily World |date=June 4, 1961 |location=Opelousas, Louisiana |page=2|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=subscription}}</ref> However, Treen would later leave the Louisiana States' Rights Party because he perceived the party to be [[anti-Semitism|anti-Semitic]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Newton |first1=Michael |title=The National States Rights Party: A History |date=2017 |publisher=McFarland & Company |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-1-4766-6603-7 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_9zCDgAAQBAJ&q=Treen&pg=PA71|oclc=966563227|via=Google Books}}</ref>

===1962, 1964, and 1968 U.S. House elections===
In 1962 Treen joined the central committee of the [[Louisiana Republican Party]]. Encouraged by friends, Treen launched a campaign for the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] to serve [[Louisiana's 2nd congressional district]], based in [[New Orleans]], against incumbent Democrat [[Hale Boggs]].<ref name="Congress bio"/><ref name="NOLA obituary"/> Treen raised $11,000 for his 1962 campaign and lost the election, receiving only about a third of total votes.<ref name="builder">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091101222018/http://spectator.org/archives/2009/10/30/dave-treen-political-builder|archive-date=November 1, 2009|title=Dave Treen, Political Builder|last=Hillyer|first=Quin|work=The American Spectator|date=October 30, 2009|url=https://spectator.org/40636_dave-treen-political-builder/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 6, 1962 |url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1962election.pdf |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=April 27, 2020 |location=Washington |page=17 |date=1963}}</ref>

In 1964, Treen again challenged Boggs. In a year when Republican presidential candidate [[Barry Goldwater]] won the majority of [[1964 United States presidential election in Louisiana|statewide votes in Louisiana]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/state.php?year=1964&fips=22&off=0&f=1|title=1964 Presidential General Election Results - Louisiana|website=Uselectionatlas.org|access-date=April 12, 2022}}</ref> Treen received 62,881 votes (45 percent) to Boggs' 77,009 (55 percent).<ref>{{cite web |title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 3, 1964 |url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1964election.pdf |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=April 27, 2020 |location=Washington |page=17 |date=1965}}</ref>

Treen ran again in 1968 in his third and final campaign against Boggs, who was then the House [[majority whip]]; Boggs won with 81,537 votes (51 percent) to Treen's 77,633 (49 percent).<ref>{{cite web |title=Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 5, 1968 |url=http://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1968election.pdf |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=April 27, 2020 |location=Washington |page=17 |date=1969}}</ref> Following the [[1970 United States census]], Louisiana's 2nd congressional district was reapportioned to exclude parts of Jefferson Parish with strong Republican support, including Treen's residence.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ferrell |first1=Thomas H. |last2=Haydel |first2=Judith |title=Hale and Lindy Boggs: Louisiana's National Democrats |journal=Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association |date=Autumn 1994 |volume=35 |issue=4 |page=393 |jstor=4233145 }}</ref>

===1971–72 gubernatorial election===
{{Main|1971–72 Louisiana gubernatorial election}}

Treen was challenged in 1971 in the only Republican gubernatorial [[closed primary]] ever held in Louisiana by [[Robert Max Ross]]. In a campaign tour in [[Minden, Louisiana|Minden]], Treen said that Louisiana needed "true competition" in state government, or "a system in which two political parties operate on a continuing and permanent basis to examine and criticize each other's policies and programs." If elected, Treen said that he would be "as independent as possible" in the governorship.<ref>"Treen Says Louisiana Needs Two-Party System to Develop Leaders," ''[[Minden Press-Herald]]'', September 3, 1971, p. 1.</ref> Treen won the Republican primary with 92 percent of the vote.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

Treen polled 480,424 ballots (42.8%) to Edwards's 641,146 (57.2%) Treen carried twenty-seven parishes, mostly in the northern part of the state, with margins exceeding 60 percent in ten of those parishes.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}} Weak support among black voters was reported as one factor in Treen's loss.<ref name=cmte>"Treen Named State GOP Committeeman", ''Minden Press-Herald'', March 6, 1972, pg. 1.</ref>