Barry Goldwater, Jr.

Barry Goldwater Jr will be speaking at the Tucson Tea Party

Barry Morris Goldwater, Jr. (born July 15, 1938), is a former Republican member of the United States House of Representatives from California, 1969–1983. He is the son of the late Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee who ran against Lyndon B. Johnson for President of the United States during the 1964 Presidential election.

The Goldwaters’ are legendary in Arizona. Barry’s great-grandfather, Mike Goldwater, emigrated from Poland to the United States in the 1840s, landing in San Francisco . In 1850 he began a mercantile business traveling by wagon throughout mining camps in California, Nevada, and Arizona . He settled that year in Prescott, Arizona, where he opened his first dry goods store, which through the efforts of his sons Baron and Morris and grandsons, Bob and Barry, would expand into a tremendously successful clothing business. Like his father before him, Barry, Jr. worked in the family business, planning to accede to management. However, about the time he graduated from Arizona State University with a bachelor of science in marketing and management, the stores were sold, leaving Barry with a decision to make about his future.

The year 1964 found Barry, Jr. crisscrossing the country campaigning for his father, Senator Barry Goldwater, to become President of the United States . The outcome of that effort is well known, but its impact on Barry is not. It set the pattern of public service that he would soon undertake.

Already involved in local civic activities such as the Boys Club, Big Brothers, the Boy Scouts of America, and the president of a local Lions Club, Barry at the age of 30 ran for Congress and won. He not only won that election but seven more, serving 14 years in Washington, D.C., representing half a million constituents of northern Los Angeles County. He and his father were unique, representing one of the few instances in U.S. history when both father and son were serving in Congress at the same time. Barry’s 14 years in Washington (1969-1984) left an imprint on him and on the nation.

On November 16, 2007, Goldwater publicly endorsed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas for the GOP nomination in 2008.

He is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Goldwater Institute. The Goldwater Institute is a nonprofit political think tank which studies and publishes findings on public policies that align with the conservative values promoted by Goldwater’s father. Goldwater supported legislation and policies generally embrace economic independence, individual rights, and a restriction of governmental powers.