A former dominant figure in the United States’ political landscape, erstwhile Texas Representative and Lt. Governor Ben Barnes released a book titled Barn Burning, Barn Building.

The former protégé of President Lyndon Johnson was the youngest representative to ever be elected as House Speaker at the age of 26. A few years later, Ben Barnes became the lieutenant governor of Texas at the age of 30.

Ben Barnes’ political career was deemed to be on the rise. Even Pres. Johnson declared Ben Barnes would be the next president. However, his political ambitions did not see fruition and ended during the presidential term of Nixon.

Though his political position never got higher than the lieutenant governor spot, Barnes remains an active player in the political arena. So active that even the former Senate Majority Leader, Tom Daschle, declared Barnes as the “51st Democratic senator.”

With the book Barn Burning, Barn Building, Ben Barnes shares his designs and machinations to combat the growing trend of Republicans taking total control of United States politics. The book, which is co-authored with Lisa Dickey, describes how the Democrats had a firm grasp of the state in the 1960s, when they still dominated the political scene in the United States. Ben Barnes then describes how how the Democrats eventually lost almost the total political control of Texas to the Republicans.

During an interview to promote his book, Barnes took some time to discuss how President Lyndon Johnson influenced the way he sees national politics and bipartisanship in Texas. Ben Barnes stated that Pres. Johnson taught him that politics is a contact sport where the player should give it his all if he wants to succeed. Pres. Johnson, according to Ben Barnes, is someone who knew the legislative process more than any politician he knows.

After his political career ended, Ben Barnes managed to make a multi-million fortune out of the real estate industry during the 70s and 80s. He was able to carve a real-estate empire and led the company until the real estate bubble burst in the mid-1980s. After real estate, Ben Barnes founded the Ben Barnes Group, a business consulting and lobbying firm.

Article Source: NPR

Check out this Charlie Rose interview of Ben Barnes.

Ben Barnes is a board member of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation.

Ben Barnes is profiled in this site about his hometown, De Leon, Texas.