:''This article is about the former governor of Texas.  For the U.S. Representative from Kansas, see John R. Connelly. For the English footballer see John Connelly.''

{{Infobox US Cabinet official | name=John Bowden Connally, Jr.
| image=John Connally.jpg
| order=61<sup>st</sup> United States Secretary of Treasury
| term_start=February 11, 1971
| term_end=June 12, 1972
| president=Richard Nixon
| predecessor=David M. Kennedy
| successor=George Shultz
| order2=39th Governor of Texas
| term_start2=January 15, 1963
| term_end2=January 21, 1969
| lieutenant2= Preston Smith
| predecessor2=Price Daniel
| successor2=Preston Smith
| order3=55<sup>th</sup> United States Secretary of the Navy<br/><small>8th Secretary under the DoD</small>
| term_start3= January 25, 1961
| term_end3= December 20, 1961
| president3= John F. Kennedy
| predecessor3= William B. Franke
| successor3= Fred Korth
| birth_date=
| birth_place=Floresville, Texas
| death_date=
| death_place=Houston, Texas
| spouse= Idanell Brill "Nellie" Connally (1919-2006)
| children= Kathleen (deceased as teenager), John B., III, Sharon, and Mark Connally
| party=Democratic (1946-1973)<br> Republican (1973-1993)
| church=Methodist
}}
'''John Bowden Connally, Jr.''' (American politician, serving as Treasury under Presidents assassinated, and he was wounded in the shooting.

==Early years, education, military==
Connally was born into a large family in Floresville, the seat of Wilson County located southeast of San Antonio. He was among the few Floresville The University of Texas School of Law where he was student body president. He was admitted to the bar by examination before he graduated from law school. 

Connally served in the South Pacific Theater, where he served with distinction. He was a fighter-plane director aboard the aircraft carrier ''Bronze Star for bravery. He was shifted to another carrier, the ''Gilbert, Marshall, Philippine islands. He was discharged in 1946 at the rank of lieutenant commander.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 62</ref>

On his release from the Navy, Connally practiced law but soon returned to Lyndon Baines Johnson, when LBJ was a Congressman.  He maintained close ties with Johnson until the former president's death in 1973.  Shortly after that, Connally switched to the Republican Party. 

Two of Connally's principal legal clients were the Texas Fort Worth.  At his death in 1959, Richardson made Connally co-executor of his estate. The designation provided Connally with steady income for years afterwards. In the 1950s, Richardson was believed to have been worth from $200 million to $1 billion.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, pp, 70-71</ref>

==Marriage and family==
He married Idanell Brill nicknamed "Nellie" , whom he met while both were attending the University of Texas. The two went on to have several children.

==The Senate primary of 1948==
In the 1948 Democratic primary for the Junction, the seat of Kimble County in central Texas. During the tabulation period, Connally journeyed to Alice, the seat of Jim Wells County in south Texas.  Through "political boss" George Parr he gained a revision of the totals from Precinct 13. Some 203 names were added to the LBJ tabulation, all signed in blue ink and in the same handwriting. Some of the names were of deceased persons. The list was thereafter burned in a fire. This change in tabulation plunged Johnson into an 87-vote primary runoff majority.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 66</ref>

Connally then persuaded the Temple publisher Frank W. Mayborn to return to Texas from a business trip in Nashville, Tennessee, to cast the decisive vote in the 29-28 decision by the Democratic State Central Committee to certify Johnson as the party nominee by the disputed eighty-seven  votes. United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black had deemed that the decision in the Johnson-Stevenson race rested squarely with the central committee.<ref>[http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/MM/fmazz.html Texas Handbook Online], accessed 2 Jul 2008</ref>

==From Navy Secretary to Governor==
<!-- Deleted image removed: left|thumb|Portrait of Governor Connally -->

At the 1960 Democratic convention in Los Angeles, Connally led supporters of Senator Lyndon Johnson. He claimed that John F. Kennedy, if nominated and elected, would be unable to serve as president for a full term because of Addison's disease and dependence on cortisone. Kennedy, however, had wrapped up the needed delegates for nomination before the convention even opened. Kennedy realized he had no chance of election without the Southern Democratic votes held by Johnson, and ask him to consider becoming his running mate.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 74</ref> (Connally's words about Kennedy not serving a full term would actually become prophetic, although not as he had originally thought and in a way that he would bear witness to.)

===Secretary of the Navy===
At Johnson's request, in 1961 President Kennedy named Connally Secretary of the Navy. Connally resigned eleven months later to run for the Texas governorship.  He had managed one of the largest employers in the world, as the Navy had more than 600,000 in uniform and 650,000 civilian workers, stationed at 222 bases in the United States and 53 abroad. It had a budget of $14 billion.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 89</ref> 

Connally directed the Sixth Fleet in the Greek children on the island of Rhodes; and for spastic children in Palermo, Italy. Presents were also sent to Turkish children in Cyrprus and to a camp in Beirut for homeless Palestinian refugees.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, p. 90-01</ref> 

Connally fought hard to protect the Navy's role in the national space program, having vigorously opposed assigning most space research to the United States Air Force. ''Time'' magazine termed Connally's year as Navy secretary "a first-rate appointment". Critics noted, however, that the brevity of Connally's tenure precluded any sustained or comprehensive achievements.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, pp. 95-96</ref>

===Running for governor===
Connally announced two weeks before Marion Price Daniel, Sr., who was running for a fourth consecutive two-year term. Daniel was in political trouble following the enactment of a two-cent state sales tax in 1961, which had soured many voters on his administration.

Connally ran as a conservative Democrat, having first defeated liberal Houston in the primary.  In November, he turned back a determined bid by the conservative Republican Jack Cox, also of Houston. Cox had run two years earlier in the Democratic primary against Daniel. Connally received 847,036 ballots (54 percent) to Cox's 715,025 (45.6 percent). In the campaign, Connally made an issue of Cox's switching to the Republican Party.  Eleven years later he made the same switch.

==Governor of Texas==
Connally served as governor from 1963-1969. In November 1963, Connally was seriously wounded while riding in President Kennedy's car in Dallas when the president was assassinated. He recovered from wounds in his chest, wrist and thigh. 

In the campaigns of 1964 and 1966, Connally defeated weak Republican challenges offered by Jack Crichton and T.E. Kennerly.  He prevailed with margins of 73.8 percent and 72.8 percent, respectively, giving him influence with the legislature.<ref>Election Statistics, ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections'', Gubernatorial elections</ref> 

In 1965, Connally appointed House Speaker Byron M. Tunnell to the Texas Railroad Commission, on the retirement of 32-year veteran Ernest O. Thompson. This appointment enabled Ben Barnes to succeed Tunnell and become the youngest Speaker in Texas history.

During the hawkishly urged Johnson to "finish" the engagement by any military means necessary. Johnson, however, was more moderate in his fighting of the war than Connally advised him.

==Secretary of the Treasury==
In 1971, Republican President Nixon appointed the then Democrat Connally as Treasury Secretary. Connally that year famously told a delegation of Europeans worried about exchange rate fluctuations that the dollar is "our currency, but your problem." [http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/1334/1] 

thumb|left|Connally's official Treasury Department portrait
Secretary Connally defended a $50 billon increase in the debt ceiling and a $35 to $40 billion budget deficit as an essential "fiscal stimulus" at a time when five million Americans were unemployed. He unveiled Nixon's program of raising the price of gold and formally devaluing the dollar—finally leaving the old gold standard. Prices continued to increase during 1971, and Nixon allowed wage and price guidelines, which Congress had authorized on a stand-by basis, to be implemented. Connally later shied away from his role in recommending the failed wage and price controls. Connally announced guaranteed loans for the ailing Lockheed aircraft company. He fought a lonely battle too against growing balance-of-payment problems with the nation's trading partners. He also undertook important foreign diplomatic trips for Nixon through his role as Treasury Secretary.<ref>Charles Ashman, ''Connally: The Adventures of Big Bad John'', New York: William Morrow Company, 1974, pp. 246-249</ref>

==Democrats for Nixon==
Connally stepped down as treasury secretary in 1972 to head "Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois. 

thumb|250px|John Connally
'''John Bowden Connally, Jr.''' (* US-amerikanischer Politiker, Marineminister, Gouverneur von Texas sowie Finanzminister.

== Familie ==
Connally war der erste Sohn von John Bowden Connally und dessen Frau Lela Wright. Er hatte einen jüngeren Bruder, Merrill Connally (* 9. April 1921), der 2001 an Lungenkrebs starb. Connally heiratete am 21. Dezember 1940 Idanell Brill (1919–2006), kurz 'Nellie' genannt. Mit ihr hatte er vier Kinder: Katheen Connally (1942–1958), John B. Connally III. (* 1946), Sharon Connally (* 1949) und Mark M. Connally (* 1952).

== Wahlkampfmanager ==
Connally absolvierte ein Studium der University of Texas, an der er zeitweise auch Präsident des Studentenparlaments war.

In den folgenden Jahrzehnten war er neben seiner Tätigkeit als Rechtsanwalt immer wieder als Wahlkampfmanager tätig. 1937 begann er seine parteipolitische Freundschaft zum späteren Präsidenten demokratischen Mitglied des Repräsentantenhauses als Helfer unterstützte. Während des Zweiten Weltkrieges diente er in der United States Navy.

1948 war er dann Wahlkampfmanager von Johnson bei der erfolgreichen, allerdings auch kontroversen Wahl zum Senator. 1952 verließ er seine parteipolitische Neutralität zur Demokratischen Partei als er Wahlkampfhelfer des erfolgreichen republikanischen Präsidentschaftskandidaten Dwight D. Eisenhower wurde.

1960 war er dann erneut für seinen Freund Johnson tätig, als er dessen erfolglose Nominierung zum demokratischen Präsidentschaftskandidaten unterstützte. Nachdem Johnson gegenüber dem wesentlich populäreren John F. Kennedy unterlag, blieb er jedoch im Wahlkampfteam, da Kennedy Johnson zum Vizepräsidentschaftskandidaten erklärte.

== Marineminister und Gouverneur von Texas ==
thumb|right|Verwundungen von Connally beim Kennedy-Attentat
Nach dem Wahlsieg von Kennedy wurde Connally auf Wunsch von Johnson dann am 25. Januar 1961 zum Marineminister ernannt. Von diesem Amt trat er jedoch bereits am 20. Dezember 1961 zurück um für das Amt des Gouverneurs von Texas zu kandidieren.

Nach einer knappen innerparteilichen Nominierung wurde er bei der Wahl 1962 zum Gouverneur von Texas gewählt und amtierte von 1963 bis 1969. Als solcher wurde er am 22. November 1963 beim Attentat auf John F. Kennedy schwer verwundet, da er im selben Auto saß. Seine neben ihm sitzende Ehefrau blieb unverletzt.

Während seiner Amtszeit als Gouverneur sah er sich einer nur schwachen republikanischen Opposition gegenüber, so dass seine Demokratische Partei bei den Staatswahlen von 1964 und 1966 jeweils über 70 Prozent der Stimmen erhielt.

== Finanzminister, Präsidentschaftsbewerber 1980 und Rückzug aus der Politik ==
thumb|right|Unterschrift von Connally auf US-$-Banknoten
Unter Präsident Dollar antwortete er mit dem berühmten Satz: "It's our currency, but it's your problem." (Der Dollar ist unsere Währung, aber Ihr Problem.) Nachfolger als Finanzminister wurde George P. Shultz.