1. Kuchel voted in favor of the Civil Rights Acts of 1957,1960, and 1964, as well as the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the confirmation of Thurgood Marshall to the US Supreme Court, while Kuchel did not vote on the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
Thomas Kuchel was born in Anaheim, Orange County, the son of Henry Thomas Kuchel, a newspaper editor and the former Letitia Bailey.
Thomas Kuchel graduated from both the University of Southern California in 1932, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and the University of Southern California Law School before he entered the state government.
Thomas Kuchel served in the California State Assembly from 1937 to 1941, in the California State Senate from 1941 to 1945, and as California State Controller from 1946 to 1953.
In 1953, Thomas Kuchel was appointed to the US Senate by Governor Earl Warren to fill the vacancy created after Republican Senator Richard Nixon was elected Vice President.
Thomas Kuchel was elected to the remainder of Nixon's term in 1954 and to full terms in 1956 and 1962.
The 1962 election favored incumbents, as Brown beat Nixon by a comfortable margin and Thomas Kuchel coasted to victory.
However, Thomas Kuchel broke with Knowland in 1964 when the latter asked him to endorse Barry Goldwater for the Republican nomination for president, and Thomas Kuchel instead endorsed Nelson Rockefeller, who narrowly lost the California presidential primary to Goldwater.
Thomas Kuchel was one of thirteen Republican senators to vote in favor of Medicare.
Thomas Kuchel was narrowly defeated in the Republican primary in 1968 by conservative state Superintendent of Public Instruction Max Rafferty, who went on to lose the general election to Alan Cranston, the former State Controller, a position that had once been held by Thomas Kuchel himself.
Thomas Kuchel returned to California and moved to Beverly Hills, where he practiced law until his retirement in 1981.
Thomas Kuchel was appointed by the Supreme Court to represent the appellee in United States v 12 200-ft.
Thomas Kuchel died of lung cancer on November 21,1994, in Beverly Hills.