J. C. W. Beckham

John Crepps Wickliffe Beckham (August 5, 1869 – January 9, 1940) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 35th governor of Kentucky and a United States senator from Kentucky. He was the state's first popularly-elected senator after the passage of the Seventeenth Amendment.

Descended from a prominent political family, Beckham was chosen as the running mate of Democratic nominee William Goebel in the 1899 Kentucky gubernatorial election. Although Goebel lost the election to Republican nominee William S. Taylor, the Kentucky General Assembly disputed the election results. During the political wrangling that followed, an unknown assassin shot Goebel. A day later, the General Assembly invalidated enough votes to give the election to Goebel, who was sworn into office on his deathbed. Taylor claimed the election had been stolen by the Democratic majority in the General Assembly, and a legal fight occurred between him and Beckham over the governorship. Beckham ultimately prevailed and Taylor fled the state. Beckham later won a special election to fill the remainder of Goebel's term and then an election in his own right in 1903.

In 1906, during his second term as governor, Beckham made a bid to become a U.S. senator. His favorable stance of prohibition cost him the votes of four legislators in his own party, and in 1908, the General Assembly gave the seat to Republican William O. Bradley. In 1914, Beckham secured the seat by popular election, but lost his re-election bid in 1920, largely due to his pro-temperance views and opposition to women's suffrage. He continued to play an active role in state politics for another two decades, but never returned to elected office, failing both in his 1927 gubernatorial bid and his 1936 senatorial campaign. He died in Louisville in 1940.