In the late 1950s, Percy decided to enter politics. With the encouragement of then
U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Percy helped to write
Decisions for a Better America, which proposed a set of long-range goals for the Republican Party. He belonged to the moderate and liberal wing of the Republican party, led by Eisenhower during his presidency and later closely identified with
New York Governor
Nelson A. Rockefeller. In 1958, Percy served on the Rockefeller Foundation's Special Study Fund, essentially working as an informal advisor to Rockefeller's campaign for Governor of New York. Percy first entered electoral politics with a run for
governor of Illinois in
1964, which he narrowly lost to
Democratic incumbent
Otto Kerner.
U.S. Senate After his daughter's death, Percy and his opponent both suspended campaigning for a couple of weeks following Valerie's death. After Percy appeared on the television show
Face The Nation on January 15, 1967, with the other newly elected Republican Senators, the then President Lyndon Johnson noted privately that he thought Percy would make a fine president if the opportunity should ever arise. On December 12, 1967, Senator Percy met with South Vietnamese President Thieu and assured him that "no responsible people in either the Democratic or the Republican Party favored US withdrawal from South Vietnam." In 1967, Senator Percy introduced a bill to establish a program to stimulate production of
low-cost housing. Percy's proposal was the first of its kind to provide home ownership to low-income families, and it received strong support from Republicans in both the House and the Senate, although it ultimately did not pass. and the confirmation of
Thurgood Marshall to the
U.S. Supreme Court, joined other
Rockefeller Republicans in voting against the Supreme Court nominations of
Clement Haynsworth and
George Harrold Carswell, but did vote for
William Rehnquist in 1971. When in the Senate less than two years, Percy was mentioned as a Republican hopeful for the 1968 presidential nomination.
The New York Times columnist
James B. Reston referred to him as "the hottest political article in the Republican Party". In 1970, Percy spoke about his enjoyment of
The Autobiography of Malcolm X, saying "Every white person should read it." In
1972, Percy sought a second term to the Senate. In the general election, he defeated Congressman
Roman Pucinski by a landslide. He gave up his seat on the important Senate Appropriations Committee for one on the Foreign Relations Committee. In 1978, as Percy was completing his second term, he appeared invincible. Percy was considered so strong that the Democratic Party was unable to persuade any serious candidates to challenge him in
that year's election.
Alex Seith, a
dark horse candidate, was his Democratic challenger. Seith had never before sought elected office but had served as an appointee on the
Cook County Zoning Board of Appeals for twelve years, nine as chairman. At that time, Percy's reputation as a moderate Rockefeller Republican, contrasted with Seith's ostensible hard-line
foreign policy positions, combined to make Percy suddenly vulnerable in the weeks before the election. Percy had earlier worked to broaden the base of the Republican Party and was an outlier to more conservative elements. He won re-election 53% to Seith's 46%. (Rangjung Rigpe Dorje) at the U S Capitol.
Tibetan Buddhists (seated left to right)
Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, 16th Karmapa,
Chogyam Trungpa. Standing is Ngodup Burkhar, a translator and Senator Charles Percy, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee|alt= After the Republicans won control of the Senate in 1980, Percy became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. That year he gave a luncheon in honor of the 16th Karmapa of Tibet at the United States Capitol with other Tibetan Buddhists and congressmen. He served in the Senate until the end of his third term in January 1985, after narrowly losing to Congressman
Paul Simon in
1984. Critics had accused Percy of paying more attention to foreign affairs than to the domestic issues of his constituents. They note that despite a generally pro-Israel voting record, Percy incurred AIPAC's wrath by declining to sign the AIPAC-sponsored "Letter of 76" protesting President Ford's threatened "reassessment" of U.S. Middle East policy in 1975. Percy also called PLO leader
Yasser Arafat more "moderate" than some other Palestinians. Earlier that year, Percy and the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
Dante Fascell argued that
Karl Linnas, a former concentration camp commander who was to be deported from Pennsylvania to Estonia who lied in the papers he used to enter the United States, should not be sent to the Soviet Union. Linnas was found to have ordered, and participated in, the murders of Jews and other prisoners. Percy's view, shared by Fascell, Representative
Donald L. Ritter of Pennsylvania, and the
Helsinki Commission, was that Linnas should be deported, just not to the Soviet Union as it “would be an acknowledgement that the USSR has formally taken over Estonia.” While in the Senate, Percy was active in business and international affairs. Although he explored the possibility of running for president in both 1968 and 1976, he did not run either time. During the early 1970s, he clashed with President Nixon and criticized the U.S. conduct of the
Vietnam War. In 1977, Percy and Sen.
Hubert H. Humphrey—responding to the 1973 OPEC oil embargo and high energy prices in general—created the
Alliance to Save Energy to encourage a national commitment to energy efficiency. Percy was the founding chairman of the organization. Percy was mentioned again for the presidency in 1980 and 1988, but his candidacies did not progress beyond the exploratory stage. In 1981, three congressional staffers of Percy's Subcommittee on Energy, Nuclear Proliferation, and Government Processes (
Bill Strauss, Elaina Newport, and Jim Aidala) formed the political-satire group the
Capitol Steps, which performed for 40 years. Perhaps Percy's most important act, and his longest-lasting legacy, was ending the practice of nominating
federal judges from a pool of candidates generated by the Chicago political machine. He implemented a system of consultation with, and advice from, groups of legal experts, including the professional bar association, a practice considered novel at the time. ==Marriage and family==