Fife Symington's three campaigns for Congress

Fife Symington, the grandson of steel magnate Henry Clay Frick, ran for Congress in Maryland three times as a Republican without success.  He ran for an open seat in 1958 when four-term incumbent James Devereaux ran for Governor.  That turned out to be a bad year for Republicans nationally: Devereaux lost to Millard Tawes 63%-37% and Daniel Brewster, a 35-year-old state legislator, won the seat 61%-39%.  Symington ran again in 1960 and Brewster beat him 59%-41%.  His third bid came in 1962, when Brewster ran for U.S. Senator and lost the open seat to Clarence Long, 52%-48%.  When Richard Nixon became President, he appointed Symington to serve as the U.S. Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.  He was a cousin of Stuart Symington, a U.S. Senator from Missouri and a candidate for the 1960 Democratic presidential nomination, and the father of Fife Symington III, who was elected Governor of Maryland in 1990 and served until his conviction on federal bank fraud charges in 1997.

Brewster, who died in August 2007 at age 84, was accused of taking a bribe and lost his bid for re-election in 1968 to Republican Charles Mathias.  He was convicted on federal corruption charges, and after his conviction was overturned, he settled the matter in 1975 by pleading no contest to the felony charge.

Long remained in Congress until 1984, whe he was unseated by Republican Helen Delich Bentley.  This is the seat eventually held by Robert Ehrlich.   Devereaux returned to public service four years later when he was named Baltimore County Director of Public Safety by the new County Executive, Spiro Agnew. He died in 1988 at age age 83.  Long died in 1994 at age 86.