New Dealer Mitchell Dies At 89

Former U.S. Sen. Hugh Burnton Mitchell, a New Deal Democrat who served Washington state in the U.S. House and Senate during the late 1940s and early ‘50s, has died.

Mitchell, 89, died Monday night at a Seattle nursing home.

“He was honest, dedicated and a very kind and caring individual,” said former Gov. Albert Rosellini, a former political opponent.

Mitchell was born March 22, 1907, in Great Falls, Mont., and grew up on a dairy farm. After college at Dartmouth, he took a job as a reporter for the Everett Herald. He married Kathryn Smith in 1937 and they had two children.

In the early 1930s, he became chief of staff to Monrad Wallgren, who spent two years in the U.S. House and a dozen years in the Senate. When Wallgren was elected governor in 1944, he chose Mitchell to serve the remainder of his Senate term.

Mitchell was 37 - the nation’s second-youngest senator - when he was sworn in Jan. 10, 1945.

He was defeated in November 1946 by Tacoma Republican Harry Cain, but won election to Congress in 1948 from the 1st Congressional District, representing the Seattle area.

In 1952 - his final year in the House and in political office - Mitchell ran for governor. Anti-communist hysteria was at high pitch, and Rosellini, his Democratic primary opponent, suggested Mitchell was soft on communism.

Mitchell won the primary, but lost to incumbent Gov. Arthur Langlie.