Editing Dave Treen (section)

===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>