18 Facts About Mack Mattingly

Mack Francis Mattingly was born on January 7,1931 and is an American diplomat and politician who served one term as a United States senator from Georgia, the first Republican to have served in the US Senate from that state since Reconstruction.

Mack Mattingly served four years in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, in the early 1950s.

Mack Mattingly first became active in politics in 1964 when he served as chairman of US Senator Barry Goldwater's campaign for President in Georgia's 8th congressional district.

Two years later, Mattingly would help Bo Callaway organize the Georgia Republican Party and joined his ticket as a candidate for the US House of Representatives against Congressman W S Stuckey, Jr.

Mack Mattingly lost the race but was elected a member of the Georgia Republican Party State Executive Committee and served as Vice Chairman from 1968 until 1975.

Mack Mattingly served as Chairman of the Georgia Republican Party from 1975 to 1977 when he began exploring a race for the US Senate.

In 1980, Mack Mattingly scored a historic upset, defeating longtime Democratic Senator Herman Talmadge, outpolling Ronald Reagan who lost the state in the Presidential election to favorite son Jimmy Carter.

Mack Mattingly served in the Senate from January 1981 until January 1987, with membership on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations, chairing first the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Legislative Branch and later the United States Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs.

Mack Mattingly served at various times on the Senate Banking Committee, the Governmental Affairs Committee, the Joint Economic Committee and the Ethics Committee.

Mack Mattingly is perhaps best remembered as a proponent of the line-item veto, a position that earned him recognition by President Ronald Reagan during his 1985 State of the Union Address.

Mack Mattingly garnered attention in 1981 when he submitted a budget proposal that would remove several sections of Playboy Magazine if the magazine wished to continue receiving federal funding for its Braille edition.

In November 1986, Mack Mattingly was narrowly defeated in his bid for re-election by former Congressman Wyche Fowler of Atlanta.

In 1988, Mack Mattingly received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Mack Mattingly ran against Democrat Zell Miller in the 2000 special election to replace the deceased Senator Paul Coverdell, but Miller succeeded in holding the seat to which he had been appointed by Governor Roy Barnes.

Mack Mattingly endorsed Fred Thompson for President in the 2008 Republican primary, and John McCain in the general.

Mack Mattingly initially supported Jeb Bush but later Donald Trump for President in the 2016 Republican primary after Bush dropped out, and he supported Trump again in 2020.

Mack Mattingly married Carolyn Longcamp in 1957, and fathered two daughters, Jane and Anne.

Mack Mattingly continues to be active in Republican politics, and he serves on a number of corporate boards.