Allan Shivers

When Governor Beauford Jester died on July 11, 1949, Shivers succeeded him—the only lieutenant governor in Texas history thus far to gain the governor's office through the death of his predecessor. In 1950, Shivers won election as governor in his own right, defeating Republican Ralph W. Currie: 355,010 votes (89.93%) for the incumbent governor while Currie had garnered 39,737 votes (10.07%)

In 1952, Shivers proved so popular that he was listed on the gubernatorial ballot as the nominee of both the Democratic and Republican parties (Democrat Shivers handily defeated Republican Shivers). Between both parties, Shivers garnered 1,844,530 votes (98.05%) to "No Preference" getting 36,672 votes (1.95%). Subsequently, Texas law was changed to remove the "No Preference" option.

Shivers then set the three-term precedent by running again and winning in 1954, he garnered 569,533 votes (89.42%) to Republican Tod R. Adams' 66,154 votes (10.39%).

He worked closely with his appointed Secretary of State John Ben Shepperd, who won election in 1952 and 1954 as state attorney general. Together, Shivers and Shepperd tried to clean up corruption in the machine province of Duval County.

The Shivercrats were a conservative faction of the Democratic Party in Texas in the 1950s. The faction was named for Shivers, who was criticized by liberals within the party—particularly Ralph Yarborough—for his corruption and conservatism. The term was first used derisively by party liberals, who attacked Shivers and his allies in the party for backing Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower over the national party's chosen candidate Adlai Stevenson in 1952.

Corruption during the Shivers administration damaged his reputation and endangered his chances of re-election in 1954. Land Office Commissioner Bascom Giles was convicted of committing rampant fraud against Texas war veterans, and a disproportionate number of African-American veterans in particular, through the a veterans land program under the Texas Veterans Land Board of the Texas General Land Office. Giles was the only member of the Shivers administration to go to prison, but Shivers and the state attorney general, John Ben Shepperd, as ex officio members of the Veterans Land Board, were implicated in the scandal, which occurred during their watch.

The Shivercrats responded with a vicious negative campaign that tried to paint the party liberals as communists. Shivers also urged the Texas Legislature to pass a bill making membership in the Communist Party a death-penalty offense, describing such membership as being "worse than murder",[1][2][3] although a less extreme version of the proposition finally passed both Houses.[4][5]

President Lyndon B. Johnson at first aligned himself with the Shivercrats (including John Connally), but after becoming President, Johnson increasingly sided with Yarborough and the liberals on policy matters. Most of the Shivercrats either left public life or became Republicans after Johnson's presidency, as the liberal-moderate faction was in firm control of the state party after 1970.

In 1952, Shivers named oil industrialist Bill Noël of Odessa to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. Noël was reappointed by the two subsequent governors.[6]

Shivers appeared as himself in the 1955 film Lucy Gallant starring Jane Wyman and Charlton Heston.

Shivers previously held the record for longest continuous service as Texas Governor at 7.5 years until June 2008, when Rick Perry surpassed Shivers's record for continuous service. (Bill Clements initially broke Shivers's total service record, having served eight years over two nonconsecutive terms; Perry subsequently surpassed this record, as well.)

Both Shivers and Perry are the only two Texas governors to have been inaugurated four times.

Shivers disputed the Truman administration's claim on the Tidelands and disapproved of Truman's veto that would have vested tideland ownership in the states. Bucking the tradition of the "Solid South", Shivers delivered Texas in the 1952 presidential election for Dwight D. Eisenhower—only the second time that Texas had supported a Republican for president since Reconstruction. The state Republican Party reciprocated by nominating Shivers for governor; he thus ran as the nominee of both parties. Shivers is believed to have lost popularity with some voters over his disloyalty to the Democratic Party. He also became less popular because of his opposition to the Brown v. Board of Education decision and his link to the Veterans' Land Board scandal.

Shivers did help enact laws raising teacher salaries and granting retirement benefits to state employees.

Allan Shivers monument at Texas State Cemetery in Austin

Shivers died suddenly of a massive heart attack in Austin on January 14, 1985. He was survived by his wife, the former Marialice Shary (1910–1996), a long-time regent of Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas, three sons, a daughter, and 10 grandchildren. The Shiverses are interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.