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About Lawton Chiles
Lawton M. Chiles, Jr. served in the United States Senate from 1971 to 1989. Prior to that, he was a member of the Florida Legislature representing his hometown of Lakeland. Chiles is best known for his celebrated walk across Florida in 1970 to run for the Senate. The walk elevated him from a political unknown to the Democratic front runner in the 1970 Democratic Senate primary. He later served as Governor of Florida.
The Lawton Chiles Senate Collection contains constituent mail, staff files, legislative records, press files, campaign records and audiovisual materials. Some of the latter appear in the digital collections.