Curtis Bernard Gans (June 17, 1937 – March 15, 2015) was an American activist, writer, and expert on American voting patterns.
With
Allard K. Lowenstein
Allard Kenneth Lowenstein (January 16, 1929 – March 14, 1980)Lowenstein's gravestone, Arlington National Cemeteryphoto onlineon the cemetery's official website. Accessed online 28 October 2006.[Dump Johnson movement
The Dump Johnson movement was a movement within the United States Democratic Party to oppose the candidacy of President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson to become the party's nominee in the 1968 presidential election. Their opposition to Jo ...]
. Based on opposition to the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
, the movement, which was considered quixotic at first, grew strong and was instrumental in setting in motion events which eventually persuaded president
Lyndon Johnson that continuing his campaign to be re-nominated for the presidency by his party would be difficult and divisive and uncertain of success. Johnson withdrew his candidacy, an unusual event in American politics for a sitting president.
Gans studied turnout and voting patterns for more than three decades. He co-founded and was director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, formerly housed at
American University in Washington, D. C.
Gans was commonly sought out by major American publications as an expert on voting patterns and was sometimes called on by the
US State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs of other nati ...
's Foreign Press Center to brief foreign reporters during the runup to American elections.
Additionally, he served as a consultant to the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the National Committee for an Effective Congress, and managed a number of political campaigns.
[ In 2015, he died at the age of 77 of lung cancer.]
Bibliography
Books
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Selected articles
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References
External links
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Transcript of 2000 interview with Gans
by ABC News
by CNN
by PBS News
2015 deaths
1968 United States presidential election
Lyndon B. Johnson
American University faculty and staff
American political scientists
Psephologists
People from Washington, D.C.
1937 births
Deaths from cancer in Maryland
Deaths from lung cancer
People from Brooklyn
Activists from New York (state)
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