John Bowden Connally, Jr. (February 27, 1917 – June 15, 1993), was an American politician. As a Democrat he served as the 39th Governor of Texas, as Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon. While he was Governor in 1963, Connally was a passenger in the car in which President Kennedy was assassinated, and was seriously wounded during the shooting. In 1973 he switched parties to become a Republican, and under that party banner he ran for the Presidency in 1980.
Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 3, 1991-1993, pp. 114-116. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001.
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In 1980, he ran for President in a field of candidates that also included Ronald Reagan and George Bush. He was, at the time, the first Governor of Texas to run for President. Appropriately, the other candidate, George Bush, is the father of former Governor of Texas, and U.S. President, George W. Bush.