His time as vice president earned him respect from other Southern Democrats, and his birthday was an occasion for Democrats to get together and celebrate. He retired from politics and moved back to Uvalde. Garner declined to be FDR’s running mate for a second re-election. In Texas, 2 percent of farms had electricity in 1936 by 1965, only 2 percent of farms were without power, according to the Texas State Historical Association. He played a role in major New Deal accomplishments, including the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, which led to the creation of rural cooperatives. Garner even remarked, “When I was elected vice president of the United States, it was the worst thing that ever happened to me.” But while he was in office, Garner revolutionized the position from figurehead to vital member of the executive branch.

Garner called the vice presidency the “spare tire of government” and “almost wholly unimportant,” Cox said. After failing to secure the Democratic nomination in 1932, Garner pulled out of the race and became Roosevelt’s running mate. He was elected Speaker of the House in 1931, and it was during that term that he decided to run for president. Garner understood that influence came with seniority, so he used his years in office to build affiliations with prominent members of Congress. After returning to Texas, Garner worked to pass the bar and set up a law office in Uvalde. Garner, born in 1868 near Detroit, Texas, attended law school at Vanderbilt University but never finished. “The current generation of political leaders has more exposure to the media.” “There wasn’t extensive media coverage of politics and political personalities,” said Cox, who has researched Garner’s life. Patrick Cox, a Texas historian and vice president of the Pedernales Electric Cooperative board of directors, said the vice presidency received little media attention back then. How is it, then, that most people, even Texans, probably don’t know John Nance Garner? After all, he earned the colorful nickname Cactus Jack as a Texas legislator and became the catalyst for pushing President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal through Congress in the 1930s. There are several definitions floating around out there - but this is an original scenario and should be considered an authentic Cactus Jack henceforth - If lonely in the desert, take a small cactus and carefully remove all needles. Historians consider him perhaps the most influential vice president ever, but he had such disdain for the office he is famous for saying it ‘is not worth a bucket of warm spit’-though there seems to be some uncertainty about exactly how he put it. vice president from Texas was a gruff, outspoken career politician who spent much of his life in Washington. This challenging, polarizing, partially crowdfunded 25,000 micro-budget feature film written & directed by The Thornton Brothers is their directorial debut (.

Cactus jack