David Boren

David Lyle Boren (born April 21, 1941) is a retired American lawyer and politician from Oklahoma.

He graduated in 1963 from Yale University, where he majored in American history, graduated in the top one percent of his class and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

He was a member of the Yale Conservative Party, Cannon and Castle ROTC Honor Society, elected president of the Yale Political Union and is a member of Skull and Bones.

Boren served in the Oklahoma Army National Guard from 1963 to 1974.

He attained the rank of captain and served as commander of the 2120th Supply & Service Company in Wewoka.

He was selected as a Rhodes Scholar and earned a master's degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from University of Oxford (1965), serving later as a member of the Rhodes Scholarship selection committee.

In 1966 Boren defeated fellow Democrat William C. Wantland in a primary election and Clifford Conn Jr. in the general election to win a seat in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, where he served four terms, 1967 to 1975.

In 1968, he received a J.D. degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law.

While serving in the House, Boren was a member of the committee that investigated the University of Oklahoma after the school allowed black militant Paul Boutelle, a socialist and anti-Vietnam War activist, to give a speech there.

During his House tenure Boren was also a professor at Oklahoma Baptist University.

During his tenure Boren worked on: eliminating the inheritance tax for property left by one spouse to another; a reduction in the state income tax rate; improvements to the state corrections program in the wake of the 1973 Oklahoma State Penitentiary riot; and elimination of more than a hundred state agencies, commissions, and boards.

Boren attracted national attention during the Energy Crisis when he advocated nationwide deregulation of natural gas prices.

In 1974, Boren ran for governor.

In keeping with the anti-establishment movements of that Watergate scandal-era campaign season, Boren's effort included the "Boren Broom Brigade" to demonstrate his pledge to "sweep out the Old Guard" and bring fundamental reforms to state government.

Boren and Congressman Clem McSpadden defeated incumbent David Hall in the primary election and moved into a runoff for the Democratic nomination.

Boren beat McSpadden in the runoff and subsequently defeated Republican Jim Inhofe in the general election.

A member of the Democratic Party, he served as 21st governor of Oklahoma from 1975 to 1979 and three terms in the United States Senate from 1979 to 1994.

A conservative Democrat, to date, he is the last in his party to have served as U.S. Senator from Oklahoma.

Boren opted not to run for reelection in 1978, instead running for the United States Senate seat held by the retiring Dewey Bartlett.

He won a multi-candidate primary with 46 percent of the vote to second-place finisher Ed Edmondson's 28 percent.

Boren then defeated Edmondson in the runoff, and Republican Robert Kamm, former President of Oklahoma State University, in the general election.

During his 1978 U.S. Senate campaign while holding the office of Governor, Boren's main rival for the Democratic party's nomination, former U.S. Rep Ed Edmondson, called Boren "a Republican" due to a Boren policy as Governor which eliminated the state tax for inheritances between spouses.

Edmondson took a pledge recited on a biography of President Harry Truman, that he was not nor had never been "a Republican."

Another of Boren's primary opponents was Anthony Points, who ran under an assumed name, had faced charges of passing bogus checks, and accused Boren of being gay.

Following his victory, Boren swore an oath on a family Bible, declaring "I know what homosexuals and bisexuals are. I further swear that I am not a homosexual or bisexual. And I further swear that I have never been a homosexual or bisexual. And I further swear that I have never engaged in any homosexual or bisexual activities nor do I approve of or condone them."

Despite the personal attacks which made The Washington Post describe the race as a "Gutter Shootout" Boren prevailed by wide margins in the primary, runoff and general election balloting.

In the U.S. Senate, Boren was known as a centrist or conservative Democrat, and was a protégé of Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and was often aligned with southern Democrats Sam Nunn of Georgia and Howell Heflin of Alabama.

He was a strong advocate of tax cuts across the board as the cornerstone of economic policy.

He also served as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 1987 to 1993.

He opposed the windfall profit tax on the domestic oil industry, which was repealed in 1988.

At one point, the tax was generating no revenue, yet still required oil companies to comply with reporting requirements and the IRS to spend $15 million to collect the tax.

Of the tax, Boren said: "As long as the tax is not being collected, the accounting requirements are needless. They result in heavy burdens for the private sector and unnecessary cost to the taxpayer."

Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), who served with him, publicly stated that Boren should be elected president.

Boren's chief of staff was a respected Capitol Hill insider, Charles Ward, a former longtime administrative assistant to Speaker Albert.

Boren served on the Senate Committee on Finance and the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

He was the 13th and second-longest serving president of the University of Oklahoma from 1994 to 2018.

He was the longest serving chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Coincidentally, Inhofe would go on to be his successor in the United States Senate in the 1994 special election after his resignation.

On September 20, 2017, Boren officially announced his retirement as president of the University of Oklahoma, effective June 30, 2018.

Boren was born in Washington, D.C., the son of Christine (née McKown) and former U.S. representative Lyle Hagler Boren.