became a proponent of liquor-by-the-drink. A short time after he was elected, the state adopted a new system of alcohol control. Governor of Iowa Hughes served as governor from 1963 to 1969. During this time, he continued to reach out, as a Christian and an alcoholic in recovery, to people still suffering. He established a treatment program in the state and was an effective spokesman for a more enlightened view of the role of alcohol in society. The new treatment program was viewed as an alternative to the state mental hospitals. Hughes wrote that the goal was to reach alcoholics "before they reach rock bottom." A death penalty opponent, Hughes reached out to President John F. Kennedy to request he commute the death sentence of Victor Feguer, who had been convicted on federal murder charges. The President was the only one who could commute the sentence, but Kennedy thought the crime was so brutal that he denied the request. Meanwhile Hughes's political career continued to gain strength. He made a speech seconding the nomination of Lyndon B. Johnson at the 1964 Democratic convention—a decision he would eventually regret—and gained national recognition as a liberal governor as well as a promising national figure in the Democratic Party. Trade missions abroad, and a tour of Vietnam with other governors, provided him with foreign policy experience. In his 1964 bid for reelection as governor, Hughes's opponent, Evan Hultman, called attention to Hughes's brief relapse into alcoholism in 1954. In a debate, Hultman charged that Hughes's failure to acknowledge the relapse publicly showed that Hughes lacked integrity. Hughes responded, "I am an alcoholic and will be until the day I die.... But with God's help I'll never touch a drop of alcohol again. Now, can we talk about the issues of this campaign?" According to the Des Moines Register, "The reaction of the crowd was immediate and nearly unanimous." Later, the Register editorialized, "In our opinion, any man or woman who wins that battle and successfully puts the pieces of his or her life back together again deserves commendation, not censure." Hughes won by a landslide. In 1966, Iowa, like other states, experienced Democratic losses, but Hughes survived. It was at that time that his friendship with Robert F. Kennedy started, and it was Kennedy who encouraged him to run for a Senate seat. The next years were difficult, in the wake of the