1. John Wayne Mixson was an American politician and farmer in Florida who served as the 12th lieutenant governor of Florida from 1979 to 1987, and as the 39th governor of Florida for three days in January 1987.
42 Facts About Wayne Mixson
1. 2.
Wayne Mixson was a lifelong conservative Democrat, and though he served in the Florida legislature and as Florida's lieutenant governor as a member of that party, he supported a mix of Democratic and Republican candidates for various state and national offices after retiring from elected office.
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Wayne Mixson served in the United States Navy during World War II, then attended college at Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania before moving to Florida and finishing his degree at the University of Florida in 1947.
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Wayne Mixson became an active member of the American Farm Bureau Federation and served in multiple positions in the organization from the county to statewide level both before and after his terms in elected office.
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Wayne Mixson entered politics in 1966, with an unsuccessful run in the Democratic primary election for a seat in the Florida Senate.
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In 1978, Bob Graham, a state senator from South Florida, tapped Wayne Mixson to be his running mate to balance the ticket in his campaign for governor.
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The ticket of Graham and Wayne Mixson were reelected in 1982.
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Wayne Mixson considered running for governor to replace Graham in 1986, but ultimately decided to retire from electoral politics and Republican Bob Martinez won the office.
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John Wayne Mixson was born on June 16,1922, in New Brockton, Alabama, to Cecil Marion Mixson and Mineola Moseley.
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Wayne Mixson attended Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania before graduating from the University of Florida in 1947, with a degree in business administration.
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Wayne Mixson was selected to replace Sandy Johnson as the Florida Farm Bureau's field representative in North Florida and took the position on June 15,1954.
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In 1961, Wayne Mixson resigned from his position within the Florida Farm Bureau to manage his farm and considered running in the 9th congressional district during the 1962 elections.
13.
Finlayson, president of the Florida Farm Bureau, announced that he would not seek reelection, and Wayne Mixson ran to succeed him, but later withdrew.
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Art Karst was selected to replace Finlayson while Wayne Mixson was selected to serve as vice president.
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Wayne Mixson served as a member of the Florida Citizens For Goldwater-Miller committee.
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In 1971, Mixson was selected to serve as a Majority Whip alongside John Clark, Elvin L Martinez, Roy Hess, Ed Fortune, John Forbes, Lew Whitworth, and Harold Featherstone.
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In January 1972, Wayne Mixson was selected by Speaker Richard Pettigrew to replace Howell Lancaster as chairman of the Agriculture committee due to Lancaster's death.
18.
Graham and Wayne Mixson stated that Wayne Mixson did not make that statement.
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Wayne Mixson was the first lieutenant governor of Florida to win reelection to a second term.
20.
On January 2,1979, Mixson was inaugurated as the 12th Lieutenant Governor of Florida by Chief Justice Arthur J England Jr.
21.
At the state Democratic convention Mixson was selected to serve as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in support of Carter alongside Graham, James C Smith, Doyle Conner, Claude Pepper, Hazel Talley Evans, and Phyllis Miller.
22.
From February 10 to 16,1980, Mixson was meant to lead a 35-member delegation, which included Agriculture Commissioner Doyle Conner, state House Speaker J Hyatt Brown, and Commerce Secretary Sidney Levin, during Florida's fifth Intercambio Comercial to Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuador.
23.
Wayne Mixson later sent a letter to Graham written by Bruner's lawyers alleging that Bruner was the victim of a political conspiracy.
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In 1985, Wayne Mixson served as Florida's representative at President Ronald Reagan's second inaugural address.
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Wayne Mixson was the second lieutenant governor to assume the governorship.
26.
In 1988, Martinez appointed Wayne Mixson to serve as the director of PRIDE, which ran prison industries in Florida.
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In 1988, Mixson supported Bill Gunter for the Democratic nomination for the Senate election and supported John W Vogt for the Democratic nomination for insurance commissioner.
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In 1996, Wayne Mixson was inducted into the Florida Agricultural Hall of Fame.
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Wayne Mixson was given an honorary doctorate from the Florida Institute of Technology.
30.
However, during the 1998 Florida gubernatorial election he supported Bush against Lieutenant Governor Buddy MacKay although Wayne Mixson still supported Graham for reelection to the Senate against Republican nominee Charlie Crist.
31.
However, after Graham dropped out of the presidential primary Wayne Mixson supported President Bush for reelection in the 2004 presidential election.
32.
In 2015, Wayne Mixson wrote the foreword for the first complete book of the Florida Governorship, Robert Buccellato's Florida Governors: Lasting Legacies.
33.
Wayne Mixson died on July 8,2020, in Tallahassee, Florida, at the age of 98.
34.
In 1972, Wayne Mixson voted in favor of leaving the phrase "prohibit forced busing" in a voter referendum on desegregation busing.
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Wayne Mixson cosponsored legislation created by Charles Papy that would prohibit gender discrimination in employment, banking, and education.
36.
In 1979, Wayne Mixson supported Graham's decision to sign the death warrant permitting the execution of John Spenkelink, the first execution carried out after capitol punishment was reinstated, and stated that he and Graham were "strong supporters" of the death penalty when they were members of the state House.
37.
Wayne Mixson supported the use of nuclear power and stated that accidents at the Crystal River Nuclear Plant shouldn't deter the development of nuclear facilities.
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Wayne Mixson stated that unions would preserve the drudgery and rigors of hand harvesting methods.
39.
Wayne Mixson later called for an increased taxation on gasoline to as the oil crisis reduced gasoline taxation by $100 million.
40.
In 1967, Wayne Mixson voted against legislation that would have legalized the use of Bingo by non-profit organizations.
41.
In 1967, Wayne Mixson opposed a plan that would have reduced the amount of Florida counties from 67 to 50.
42.
Wayne Mixson introduced legislation that would raise the jurisdiction of small claims courts in Jackson County from cases involving less than $250 to cases involving less than $750.