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Paul Dominque Laxalt (born August 2, 1922) was a Governor and U.S. Senator from the U.S. state of Nevada. He is a Republican.
Paul Laxalt was born in Reno, Nevada, the son of a Basque shepherd and a Basque mother who had a restaurant in Carson City, the capital of Nevada. He served as a medical corpsman in the U.S. Army during World War II seeing action in the Battle of Leyte Gulf during the Philippine invasion. Prior to the war, he had attended Santa Clara University. After the war, he graduated from the University of Denver in 1949. He was the district attorney for Ormsby County, Nevada between 1950 and 1954.
Paul Laxalt was elected lieutenant governor of Nevada in 1962 and served until 1966. In 1964 he ran for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Howard Cannon and lost a controversial election by less than one hundred votes. Two years later, he was elected Governor of Nevada, defeating a two-term incumbent (Grant Sawyer) and served until 1970 when he decided against seeking re-election. He ran for the U.S. Senate in the Watergate year of 1974, defeating Lieutenant Governor Harry Reid in an election that was decided by less than 600 votes.
During his time as governor, Paul Laxalt became close friends with Ronald Reagan, who was then in his first term as governor of California. They worked on many issues of mutual interest to the two states, principally those dealing with the preservation of Lake Tahoe. During Reagan's presidency, Senator Laxalt was sometimes referred to as the "First Friend" (cf. First Lady). Paul Laxalt was national chairman of all three Reagan presidential campaigns and placed Reagan's name in nomination at the Republican National Conventions of 1976, 1980 and 1984. Laxalt was considered a potential Vice Presidential candidate for Reagan in 1980, but George Bush was chosen instead. At the behest of President Reagan, Laxalt served in the then-unprecedented role of General Chairman of the Republican Party from 1983-1987.
In 1985 Reagan asked him to travel to the Philippines to warn President Ferdinand Marcos about the U.S. government's increasing concerns about the state of the Philippine economy and the threat posed by a communist insurgency. At the height of the Philippine crisis, Marcos called Senator Laxalt to ask for his advice. Laxalt famously said that Marcos should "cut and cut cleanly." Sixteen hours later, Ferdinand Marcos, after 21 years as President of the Philippines, departed the country, never to return. A potential bloody Civil War was thus averted.
Paul Laxalt's brother, Robert Laxalt, was a noted and prolific writer. His book "Sweet Promised Land" which told the story of his father returning to his Basque homeland after almost 50 years in the American West, was an internationally acclaimed book that won several literary awards.
Paul Laxalt was married to Jackalyn Ross, the daughter of a prominent Federal judge in Nevada. Paul and Jackie had five daughters and one son. Paul later married his second wife, Carol, who had one daughter from a previous marriage.
Laxalt retired from the Senate in 1987 and was replaced by the man whom he had initially defeated in 1974 to win his Senate seat, future Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
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