John Claggett Danforth

John Claggett Danforth (born September 5, 1936) is an American politician, attorney, diplomat, and Episcopal priest who served as Attorney General of Missouri from 1969 to 1976 and as a United States Senator from Missouri from 1976 to 1995. A member of the Republican Party, he later served as Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice from 1999 to 2000 and as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2004 to 2005. Over four terms in the Senate, Danforth contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his Missouri constituents.

Danforth was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Dorothy (Claggett) and Donald Danforth. He is the grandson of William H. Danforth, founder of the Ralston Purina Company, and the brother of William Henry Danforth, who later served as chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis. Raised in a prominent St. Louis family, he attended St. Louis Country Day School before enrolling at Princeton University. At Princeton he studied religion, graduating in 1958 with an A.B. after completing a senior thesis titled “Christ and Meaning: An Interpretation of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christology.” He continued his education at Yale University, earning degrees from both Yale Law School and Yale Divinity School in 1963, a combination that would shape his dual vocation in law and the Episcopal priesthood.

After completing his graduate studies, Danforth began his legal career in private practice. From 1964 to 1966 he worked at the New York law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell. He then returned to Missouri, becoming a partner at the St. Louis firm Bryan, Cave, McPheeters and McRoberts from 1966 to 1968. In 1957 he had married Sally Dobson; the couple would have five children and, in time, 15 grandchildren. Ordained as an Episcopal priest, Danforth combined his religious commitments with a rising legal and political career, positioning himself as a Republican in a state that had long been dominated by Democrats at the statewide level.

In 1968, Danforth was elected Attorney General of Missouri, becoming the first Republican to hold that office in 40 years and the first Republican elected to any statewide office in Missouri in 22 years. He was reelected in 1972. As attorney general, he assembled a staff that included several figures who would later become nationally prominent, among them future Missouri Governor and U.S. Senator Kit Bond; future Missouri Governor, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft; future U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas; and future federal judge D. Brook Bartlett. In 1970, Danforth made his first bid for the United States Senate, running against Democratic incumbent Stuart Symington. He lost that race in a close contest but emerged as a leading Republican figure in Missouri, challenging the state’s longstanding Democratic dominance.

Danforth successfully entered the United States Senate in the 1976 election. That year he ran to succeed Senator Stuart Symington, who was retiring. After facing little opposition in the Republican primary, he confronted a Democratic Party shaken by tragedy: Congressman Jerry Litton won the Democratic primary but was killed, along with his family, in a plane crash en route to a victory celebration in Kansas City. Former Governor Warren Hearnes, who had finished second in the primary, was chosen to replace Litton as the Democratic nominee. In the general election, Danforth defeated Hearnes with nearly 57 percent of the vote. He was reelected in 1982, narrowly defeating Democratic State Senator Harriett Woods, a women’s rights advocate who campaigned vigorously against the policies of President Ronald Reagan and ran under the slogan “Give ’em Hell, Harriett.” Danforth prevailed by a margin of 51 percent to 49 percent, with Woods’s pro-choice stance widely cited as a factor in her defeat. In 1988 he won a third term, defeating Democrat Jay Nixon by a lopsided 68 percent to 32 percent. Nixon later became Missouri Attorney General and, in 2008, governor of Missouri. Danforth chose not to seek a fourth term and retired from the Senate in January 1995; he was succeeded by former Missouri Governor John Ashcroft.

During his Senate career from 1976 to 1995, Danforth served through a period of major national and international change and became known as an influential Republican voice. He often portrayed himself as a political moderate, although his voting record generally aligned with his party’s conservative wing, including support for sustaining filibusters. He once remarked that he had joined the Republican Party for “the same reason you sometimes choose which movie to see—[it’s] the one with the shortest line.” A longtime opponent of capital punishment, he made his views clear on the Senate floor in 1994. Danforth played a central role in the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, using his political clout to support Thomas, who had worked for him in the Missouri Attorney General’s office and later as an aide in the Senate. His stature within the party was such that George H. W. Bush’s presidential campaign vetted him as a potential vice-presidential running mate in 1988, although Bush ultimately selected Indiana Senator Dan Quayle instead.

Following his retirement from the Senate, Danforth returned to private legal practice in 1995 as a partner at Bryan Cave in St. Louis. In 1999, Democratic U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno appointed him Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the federal government’s role in the 1993 Waco siege. He assembled a bipartisan team, including Democratic U.S. Attorney Edward L. Dowd Jr. as deputy special counsel, Bryan Cave partner Thomas A. Schweich as chief of staff, and Assistant U.S. Attorney James G. Martin as director of investigative operations. Their work culminated in what became known as the “Waco Investigation” and the “Danforth Report.” In July 2000, his name was again floated as a potential vice-presidential nominee, this time for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush. Reports indicated that Dick Cheney, who was leading the selection process, recommended Danforth, and Bush later wrote that Danforth would have been his choice had Cheney not accepted the role himself. Danforth, preferring to remain based in Missouri with his family, formally declined consideration on July 11, 2000.

Danforth continued to hold significant diplomatic and public roles in the early 2000s. On September 6, 2001, President George W. Bush appointed him special envoy to Sudan. In that capacity he helped broker a peace agreement that brought an official end to the Second Sudanese Civil War between Sudan’s Islamic government and U.S.-backed Christian rebels in the south, although aspects of the conflict and the separate Darfur crisis remained unresolved. On July 1, 2004, he was sworn in as United States Ambassador to the United Nations, succeeding John Negroponte, who had become U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. At the United Nations, Danforth was particularly noted for his efforts to promote peace in Sudan. He was mentioned as a possible successor to Secretary of State Colin Powell, but after Condoleezza Rice was chosen for that post, Danforth submitted his resignation on November 22, 2004, effective January 20, 2005. In his resignation letter he wrote that, having married “the girl of my dreams” 47 years earlier, he now wished to spend more time with her.

Alongside his political and diplomatic work, Danforth remained active as an Episcopal priest and public commentator. On June 11, 2004, he presided over the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan at Washington National Cathedral, and he also officiated at the funerals of Washington Post executive Katharine Graham, former U.S. Senator Harry Flood Byrd Jr. of Virginia, and Missouri State Auditor Tom Schweich. In March 2005 he published an op-ed in The New York Times criticizing what he saw as the Republican Party’s transformation into “the political arm of conservative Christians,” followed by a June 17, 2005 essay titled “Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers.” He publicly opposed the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned same-sex marriage, calling it “silly” and likening it to Prohibition. In 2015 he joined 299 other Republicans in signing an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to legalize same-sex marriage. His books include “Resurrection: The Confirmation of Clarence Thomas” (Viking, 1994), “Faith and Politics: How the ‘Moral Values’ Debate Divides America and How to Move Forward Together” (Viking Press, 2006), and “The Relevance of Religion: How Faithful People Can Change Politics” (Random House, 2015).

In later years, Danforth remained engaged in civic and political reform efforts. Contributing to the anthology “Our American Story” (2019), he wrote about the possibility of a shared national narrative and emphasized what he called the “great American purpose” of holding together “in one nation a diverse and often contentious people.” He urged continued work to secure a functioning government in which compromise is the norm, to integrate all Americans into “one indivisible nation,” and to bring isolated individuals into the life of the broader community. He is a member of the Reformers Caucus of Issue One, a bipartisan group focused on political and governmental reforms. As of 2021, he has been a partner at the Clayton, Missouri, law firm Dowd Bennett, continuing his legal career just outside his native St. Louis.

Danforth also remained influential in Missouri politics and regional civic life. He was an early mentor and political supporter of Josh Hawley, encouraging Hawley’s successful campaigns for Missouri Attorney General in 2016 and the U.S. Senate in 2018, and at one time backing Hawley’s presidential ambitions. After the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and Hawley’s efforts to challenge the 2020 Electoral College vote count, Danforth publicly repudiated his former protégé, stating that supporting Hawley in 2018 “was the worst mistake I ever made in my life.” During the 2022 U.S. Senate election in Missouri, he headed a political action committee supporting independent candidate John Wood, viewed as a long-shot contender. Wood collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot but withdrew after 50 days when Eric Schmitt won the Republican primary; Danforth spent approximately $6 million on the effort. Beyond politics, he has been a minority investor in the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League since May 2012, when a group led by his son-in-law, Summitt Distributing CEO Tom Stillman, acquired controlling ownership of the team; the group obtained full ownership in June 2019. Danforth has been honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame and serves as an honorary board member of the humanitarian organization Wings of Hope.