X-Nico

6 unusual facts about Clayton Williams


Boy's Town, Nuevo Laredo

Boy's Town was referenced during the 1990 Texas gubernatorial race when Republican candidate Clayton Williams, admitted that he had made visits for "servicing".

Clayton Williams

During the campaign, Williams publicly made a joke likening rape to bad weather, having stated: "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it" (the statement had previously caused controversy amongst women's groups over the same statement by basketball coach Bob Knight, and caused WABC-TV weatherman Tex Antoine to be fired after saying that sentence, ironically, on a weather report after a story about a child rape).

He defeated a field of candidates for the nomination that included former U.S. Representative and outgoing Railroad Commissioner Kent Hance of Lubbock, Clements' former Secretary of State Jack Rains of Houston and Dallas lawyer Tom Luce.

Clayton, Jr., also known as "Claytie", was born in Alpine in the Big Bend country of far West Texas, but reared in his father's native Fort Stockton, the seat of geographically large Pecos County.

Senator John Tower had similarly refused to shake the hand of Democratic opponent Robert Krueger in a 1978 appearance in Houston but went on to win a fourth term by the narrowest of margins.

Williams spent freely from his personal fortune, running a "Good Old Boy" campaign initially appealing to conservatives.



see also