to distribute toys to foreign children, was started during his term. He continued his friendship with Eisenhower during his tenure and influenced the organization to support the anti-communist agenda as the Cold War set in. He personally delivered a number of anti-communist speeches. After 14 months as commander he returned to his law firm, which he moved to Indianapolis in December 1950. Governor of Indiana Political campaign Publicly, Craig announced he intended to leave public life and work as a lawyer for the rest of his career. Secretly, however, he began making arrangement to run for the governorship of Indiana. He was an outsider to the Republican Party leadership and owed his rise in The American Legion largely to patronage from Democrats. Craig was considerably less conservative than the party leadership, of whom William Jenner was chief, and knew that any attempt to run would be opposed by them. Knowing that most state convention delegates were re-elected to each convention, he launched an unprecedented campaign, by personally meeting with hundreds of potential convention delegates before the May election in 1951. He was able to gain enough support to ensure he would be a contender at the convention and then announced his intention to run. Jenner and the party chairman attempted to unite support in favor of one of the other five more conservative candidates, but after three rounds of balloting Craig won the nomination. He later credited the popularity of The American Legion for his victory. Harold W. Handley, of the opposing faction, was nominated to run for lieutenant governor. The national Republican Party was at that time going through a period of internal problems over their position on communism, and the best way to deal with the threat—both internally and externally. Craig brought the national party's problem to the state. Jenner and the party leadership supported faction of the party was virulently anti-communist, but Craig openly sided with Eisenhower and the wing of the party advocating a more measured response to the problem. Jenner was incensed not only by Craig's position on communism but also on his campaign platform that advocated significant increased state spending and the start of a number of new programs. The difference between Craig and the party continued throughout his time in office. Craig's Democratic opponent was incumbent lieutenant governor John Watkins. Thanks in large part to Eisenhower's popularity, Craig won a landslide victory in