George Washington Nelson was an American politician from Arizona. He served three consecutive terms in the Arizona State Senate during the

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through

10th Arizona State Legislature The 10th Arizona State Legislature, consisting of the Arizona State Senate and the Arizona House of Representatives, was constituted from January 1, 1931, to December 31, 1932, during the first and second years of George W. P. Hunt's seventh ten ...

s holding the seat from Navajo County, and again in the 12th Arizona State Legislature.

Biography

He was a veteran of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, and after the war, Nelson served as a lieutenant in the artillery reserve corps. In 1926 he ran and won the single Arizona State Senate senate from Navajo County. In 1928 he ran for re-election, and was opposed in the Democrat primary by Robert L. Moore, a former state senator. No Republican ran for the seat, so Nelson was unopposed in the general election. 1930 saw him run again for the Senate, and was unopposed in both the primary and general elections. In 1932, Nelson decided to run for the

Arizona House of Representatives The Arizona State House of Representatives is the lower house of the Arizona Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Arizona. The upper house is the Senate. The House convenes in the legislative chambers at the Arizona State C ...

, but was defeated in general election by incumbent Republican Charles J. McQuillan. In 1934, he attempted to return to the State Senate, and was in a three-way race in the Democrat primary, which included incumbent Frank M. Siegmund, who had replaced Nelson in the prior legislature. Nelson was the winner of the primary, and then defeated the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

candidate by a 20-1 margin in the general election. He decided not to run in 1936, clearing the way for Robert L. Moore to return to the State Senate. He attempted one more run for the State Senate, in 1940, but lost in the Democrat primary to Lloyd Henning, 1,790 to 1,098.

References

{{Reflist Democratic Party Arizona state senators 20th-century American politicians