Editing Marlow Cook (section)

===U.S. Senator===
In [[1968 United States Senate election in Kentucky|1968]], Cook ran for the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of another moderate Republican, [[Thruston Ballard Morton]], a former chairman of the [[Republican National Committee]]. In the [[1968 United States presidential election in Kentucky|general election]] in which [[Richard Nixon]] carried Kentucky over [[Hubert Humphrey]] and [[George Wallace]], Cook defeated former state Commerce Commissioner Katherine Peden. He was the first [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] to hold statewide office in Kentucky. He was subsequently one of the first Republican senators to call for Nixon to resign during the [[Watergate scandal]].<ref name="enc" />

Cook was defeated in his 1974 bid for re-election by Governor [[Wendell Ford]], a popular Democrat. Cook's repeated plea that Ford debate him was seen as highly unusual.<ref>{{cite news|last1=King|first1=Wayne|title=Democrat Leads in Kentucky Senate Race; Controversy Over Ads Short on Funds|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E01EEDF1F3DE13ABC4F51DFB667838F669EDE|access-date=October 8, 2014|newspaper=New York Times|date=October 27, 1974}}</ref> Following the election, Cook resigned his seat early, in December, so that Ford could resign and be appointed senator by his successor, [[Julian Carroll]], thus having greater seniority in assuming the office. (Morton had done the same for Cook, in 1968.)