Early Political Career

In 1944, Clifford Case was elected to his first of five terms in the U. S. House of Representatives. In the House, Case served on the Civil Service, Claims, Education, and Judiciary Committees. He was well known for his support of Dwight D. Eisenhower's presidential candidacy in 1952, and was appointed to the President-elect's staff. In early 1953, Case announced that he would run for governor of New Jersey, but withdrew from the race in late March after failing to raise sufficient funds. He resigned his Congressional seat in May 1953 to accept the presidency of the Fund for the Republic, an independent corporation supported by the Ford Foundation, which worked to protect freedom of expression in the United States.

In March 1954, Case announced his candidacy for the U. S. Senate. A grueling campaign ensued during which Case openly criticized Senator Joseph McCarthy's Communist witch-hunt, while conservative New Jersey Republicans attacked Case as "Stalin's choice for the Senate." The Star-Ledger accused his sister Adelaide of having Communist affiliations during her undergraduate years, which Case forthrightly denied. With the strong support of both President Eisenhower and Vice-President Richard Nixon, who campaigned for him in New Jersey, Case triumphed in one of the state's closest senatorial contests of the twentieth century, winning by less than 4,000 votes.