Wayne Townsend

Who is Wayne Townsend?

W. Wayne Townsend is a Hartford City farmer and Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Indiana who was his party's gubernatorial nominee in 1984. Townsend was defeated by the incumbent Republican Governor Robert D. Orr in a year in which Indiana joined forty-eight other states in reelecting the Reagan-Bush ticket.

Wayne was the grandson of Indiana Governor M. Clifford Townsend.

Townsend received 1,036,832 ballots to Orr's 1,146,497. Townsend ran 195,351 votes ahead of his party's presidential nominee, former Vice President of the United States Walter F. Mondale of Minnesota.

In January 1977, Townsend, then a member of the Indiana State Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote to ratify the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. The Senate had been deadlocked 25-25 on ERA. First Lady Rosalynn Smith Carter telephoned Townsend and urged him to switch his vote. Townsend did accordingly change his vote, and the ERA passed, 26-24. Indiana became the 35th and final state to ratify the controversial amendment, which was opposed by a grassroots organization headed by conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly, then of Illinois. Thirty-eight states are required for ratification of a constitutional amendment.²²