Ted Turner in the Mallory Cup in 1960. On the final windward leg, Mosbacher was slightly ahead. Ted Turner attempted to force Mosbacher into a mistake by executing a grueling tacking duel. The windward leg involved fifty-two tacks. In the end, Mosbacher won by five seconds. Political career Mosbacher was the finance chairman of Gerald Ford's failed election bid in 1976. He also lost his own race for delegate to the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, to a slate backing Ronald Reagan, Ford's rival for the party nomination. Mosbacher, running in the then 7th congressional district, lost to State Senator Walter Mengden of Houston, 39,276 to 26,344 votes. Earlier, Mosbacher in 1970 headed the fund-raising effort for George H. W. Bush in his losing Senate campaign against Lloyd M. Bentsen and again in Bush's campaigns for President in 1980 and 1988. As U.S. Secretary of Commerce, he was the principal Cabinet official responsible for initiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He was a strong proponent of the agreement, which created the largest unified market in the world. The agreement was not signed into law in the U.S. until December 8, 1993, during the administration of President Bill Clinton. The agreement went into effect on January 1, 1994. Mosbacher was a member of President Reagan's Task Force on Private Sector Initiatives 1981–83, and vice chairman of the board of trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He then became Secretary of Commerce in 1989 after he directed the George H. W. Bush 1988 Presidential Election Campaign. He also served as a director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. In 2008, he was the general chairman of John McCain's bid for the White House. Business interests Mosbacher was a charter member and past chairman of the All American Wildcatters Association, and served on the board of directors and executive committee of the American Petroleum Institute. He was former director of Texas Commerce Bank and also of New York Life Insurance Company. Mosbacher was a former president of the American Association of Petroleum Landmen, as well as a former chairman of the Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. In 1989, Mosbacher received an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Houston. He was trustee emeritus of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and president of the board of Odyssey Academy, a public charter school located