"Walkin' Lawton" Remembering Florida History - 55 years ago this month

On January 3, 1971, Polk County's Lawton Chiles took his seat in the U.S. Senate.

Honestly, his campaign was pretty wild for Florida. Nobody really knew him at first, so he decided to walk—yep, actually walk—1,003 miles from Pensacola all the way down to Key West.

"Walkin' Lawton" met people face to face, shook hands, listened to their stories. It took him 91 days and more than one pair of boots. People called it a “public relations stroke of genius,” and it worked.

Chiles crushed his opponent, William C. Cramer, in the 1970 election. He didn’t just stop there—he got reelected to the Senate twice, then headed for the governor’s office in 1990 and served two terms.