Video of Gaylord Nelson

Campaign advertisements for the 1974 Senate re-election

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Gaylord Nelson: campaign advertisement of his "early warning" system

In 1974, Gaylord Nelson ran successfully for his third term as U.S. senator from Wisconsin. On a political landscape shaped by Earth Day, Nelson could for the first time in his political career make his environmental agenda the cornerstone of his campaign.

This television spot reminds voters of Nelson’s record as the state’s governor from 1959-1963 when he reorganized the natural resources bureaucracy and dramatically increased public spending on land and parks—moves that, in the “environmental decade” of the 1970s, looked prescient.

Unitel, 1974. Running time: 00:31
Credits: Tony Schwartz, producer

Gaylord Nelson: Who helps Wisconsin?

This 1974 advertisement supporting Senator Gaylord Nelson’s reelection bid highlights how his work in two Senate terms, though garnering national, aimed always to improve life in his home state.

In the Senate, he had pushed for cuts to the defense budget and increased spending on conservation. Here the narrator describes Nelson’s efforts in the creation of the Apostles Islands National Lakeshore and the passage of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, as well as his success stalling the construction of Project Sanguine, a planned naval transmission complex in the North Woods.

Unitel, 1974. Running time: 00:31
Credits: Tony Schwartz, producer