petroleum and processed other fuels and minerals, including uranium and helium. Political career Kerr's growing wealth and business ties made him a power in state Democratic politics during the 1930s. He worked to raise funds for both Governors E.W. Marland and Leon C. Phillips. In 1940, he was elected as Democratic national committeeman for Oklahoma. Two years later he ran for the Democratic nomination for governor, campaigning as a supporter both of the New Deal and of a vigorous American role in World War II. Oklahoma's Democrats were divided over US President Franklin Roosevelt's policies, leading to a bitter campaign. Kerr narrowly won the primary and went on to win by a small margin in the general election. He was the first native-born governor. Kerr's four-year term as governor served as a turning point for Oklahoma's politics and economy. For the first time in the state's history, executive-legislative relations remained cordial, largely due to Kerr's patient leadership. When not cultivating legislators, the governor prepared his state to weather postwar economic storms. Kerr traveled more than 400,000 miles to sell Oklahoma's products and potential throughout the nation. Not coincidentally, Kerr's boosterism also promoted his own political fortunes. In 1944 he was chosen to deliver the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention, where he played a back-room role in the selection of Harry S. Truman as vice president. During World War II, despite the tendency of Oklahomans to keep the federal government at arm's length, Kerr promoted ties to the government, knowing how important the jobs and activity were to create prosperity. Oklahoma became home to many wartime industries and was a training site for military personnel. After the war, he called for increased spending to allow for post-war development of the state. Kerr traveled around the country to promote Oklahoma at his own expense. Kerr was among 12 nominated at the 1944 Democratic National Convention to serve as Roosevelt's running mate in the presidential election that year. He used his success as governor to catapult himself into the U.S. Senate in 1948. Although Kerr had national ambitions, he always put what he considered to be the interests of his state first. Unlike many of his peers he generally neglected headline-grabbing issues, including anticommunism, foreign affairs, and civil rights (although Kerr did not sign the 1956 Southern Manifesto and voted in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the