James Strom Thurmond Sr. was a prominent American politician who served as a United States Senator from South Carolina for an unprecedented 47 years, from 1954 until his retirement in 2003. Prior to his senatorial career, Thurmond held the office of the 103rd Governor of South Carolina from 1947 to 1951.
Initially a member of the Democratic Party, Thurmond switched to the Republican Party in 1964, citing that the Democratic Party no longer represented his views. Prior to this, he had run for president in 1948 as the Dixiecrat candidate, receiving over a million votes and winning four states, and later endorsed Republican Dwight Eisenhower for president in the 1950s.
