James was eventually talked out of running for President by Audrey, who convince him it would best to let the situation in Vietnam be handled by someone more experience, with though Dean was able to convince her on a senate run. With that in mind, Dean had until the day after Lyndon Johnson announced he wouldn't be seeking re-election to file the paperwork to run for senate. According to Hepburn, Dean just barely made the deadline, saying that after he had "plenty of time left over. Roughly 14-and-a-half minutes to spare!"
After throwing his hat into the California Senate race, James would end up keeping a close eye on the presidential race, eventually throwing support behind Bobby Kennedy's campaign. Kennedy would return the favor, encouraging his supporters in California to vote for Dean in the Senate race.
Unfortunately, Bobby Kennedy would die tragically after a shooting at the Ambassador hotel. James would end up eulogizing him during a campaign speech, similar to what Bobby Kennedy himself did in wake of MLK's assassination.
Despite, or perhaps because of this tragedy, Dean found himself winning the 1968 Senate race against Republican Max Rafferty. The following year, Dean and Hepburn would welcome two children into the world: Connie, named after Hepburn's best friend and Charles, named after Dean's paternal grandfather.
During his tenure in the Senate, he openly opposed many of President Nixon's decisions regarding Vietnam, questioning Nixon's devotion to his campaign promise to bring troops home from Vietnam.
Displeased by Dean and Hepburn's anti-Vietnam War activism, the FBI and CIA had been surveilling the two for months and the National Security Agency was tapping their phone calls.
In spite of this, Hepburn would continue in this up into the 1970s, even finding herself getting arrested during a protest alongside friend and fellow actress Jane Fonda.
When the Watergate break-in happened a year prior to the election, Dean and many other politicians began pointing fingers at Richard Nixon. Due to the coverage of the story by the Washington Post, Nixon very quickly found himself in hot water and his troubles were about to get worse.
After once again floating the idea of running for President to Audrey (who was much more receptive to his ideas this time around given Dean's new political experience), Dean launched an exploratory committee.
On what was a fairly quiet winters night on the 30th of November, the news media reported that the Vietnam war claimed more Americans lives, and Richard Nixon was enjoying a peaceful night in the White House, going over his reelection strategy, but was rudely interrupted by the White House phone ringing, when answering the phone Nixon was greeted by his Vice President Spiro Agnew, in a worried tone Agnew asked Nixon if he was watching NBC. Confused, Nixon asked for a more detailed information about what was on NBC. Agnew simply told him to turn on the TV and see for himself. He was greeted by an ad which featured Senator James Dean addressing the nations frustrations over the Vietnam war, with Dean himself simply saying "What are we waiting for? Let's bring 'em back home!
Image from Dean's famous 1971 presidential campaign announcement.
The day after the announcement, Senator Dean held a press conference, in his statement he said "This isn't a joke, I am putting my name forward for president because we need to bring our boys back, Nixon had four years to do it, and he clearly wants to make this a campaign issue, so I guess it's up to me now." Through the entire election afterwords, campaign ads from James Dean (which Dean and Hepburn are said to have directed themselves initially) would air every Friday on NBC.
Many young Americans were ecstatic about Dean's candidacy and he would end up dominating the Democratic primaries. Dean thanked the people who voted for him, hoped that he would not disappoint them and also hoped that the older folks of America could trust him. While Dean was giving his acceptance speech violence broke outside the Democratic convention, with many believing that Dean was the wrong man for the job and his youthfulness and potentially empty promises weren't what America needed. For his running mate, Dean had originally wanted Senator Eugene McCarthy, but when signs that more conservative voters would be upset by him getting the nomination, Hepburn persuaded him to look elsewhere. Dean instead choose former Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough in hopes to win some of the more conservative democrats, the race for the White House was on.
Despite his efforts to appease them, many of the more conservative voters in America were vehemently against Dean, with a group known as the Anti-Dean Association even forming and disrupting the Senator's campaign events. Some would even begin to claim that Dean's good looks, love of jazz and foreign wife were signs he was the Devil in disguise, though those members were ignored for the most part.
The deciding factor would come in October, after months of Nixon and Dean being neck and neck in the polls. Dean would reveal during a press conference evidence that President Nixon had interfered in the 1968 peace talks in Vietnam to help his chances in the previous election. Nixon would comment on the matter by claiming their was a Democratic conspiracy against him. The announcement would help Dean pull ahead of of Nixon in polling. On the night of the election Dean would be victorious by winning 330 votes and also winning the popular vote. Nixon would congratulate Dean on his victory.
Dean would infamously end up discussing foreign policy with Nixon at a racetrack Dean had been known to frequent.
James Dean became the 37th president of American on the 20th of January, 1973 and American had a new hope.
