1960 election, and many supported Alabama Governor George Wallace in the 1960 and 1964 Presidential elections. Hobby used his position at COPE to fight back against the segregationists, rallying support around candidates including Al Gore Sr. in Tennessee and Claude Pepper in Florida. He also spearheaded the AFL-CIO's endorsement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the South, a position that initially ran counter to many of the candidates he backed. Hobby said, quite bluntly, "Civil rights are not [just] Negro rights. Civil rights are the human rights of every citizen". 1972 gubernatorial campaign Over the course of a quarter century, Hobby developed a number of political allies, and forged relationships with a unique cross-section of the population. In 1972, he became the first union leader to run for governor in North Carolina history. Hobby knew he was an underdog, and hoped to use his candidacy to bring his populist viewpoints into mainstream political conversation. His campaign slogan was "Let's Keep the Big Boys Honest". Platform and political positions Taxes and income inequality A champion of the underprivileged, Hobby felt that relative tax rates were unjust and bad for the middle and lower classes. He believed that enough revenue was collected to create a useful pool of government services, but the wealthy were paying too little and the poor too much for them to have any meaningful impact on people's lives. He argued that setting the amount of state taxes due as a progressive proportion of the federal income rate owed would rectify the situation. Hobby also opposed existing sales taxes on food and medicine, which he thought unfairly targeted the least fortunate. Education Hobby called for expanded vocational programs for North Carolina's students, but opposed those who wished to technically train students from the very beginning of their educational careers. He felt that the purpose of the education system was to produce well-rounded individuals and capable citizens. He also wished to help more of North Carolina's students obtain at least some college training by having the state of North Carolina match pre-existing federal funds for community colleges, a plan that was not popular at a time when more than half of the state's high school graduates went on to no further schooling. Housing North Carolina provided one of the lowest qualities of life for its citizens of any state in the early 1970s. Twenty percent of residences were