John Bowden Connally Jr. was born February 27, 1917, in Floresville, Texas. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, rising to lieutenant commander and serving as an aide at the time of the Battle of the Philippine Sea. He was elected Governor of Texas three times (1963-1969) as a Democrat and was riding in President [[John F. Kennedy]]'s motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963, when he was seriously wounded in the same attack that killed Kennedy. He served as Secretary of the Navy under President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and as Secretary of the Treasury under President [[Richard Nixon]] from 1971 to 1972. He switched to the Republican Party in 1973. He mounted a campaign for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination, spending more than $11 million but winning only a single delegate before withdrawing from the race. He supported [[Ronald Reagan]] in the general election. He died June 15, 1993, in Houston.[^1] ### October Surprise Role In March 2023, Ben Barnes -- who had been the youngest Texas Speaker of the House, and in 1980 was a close associate of Connally -- publicly stated that in July-August 1980, he accompanied Connally on a Middle East tour during which Connally delivered a message to regional leaders: Iran would receive a better deal from Reagan than from Carter, and the Iranians should be counseled to wait until after the election before releasing the hostages. Barnes and Connally departed Houston on July 18, 1980, and returned August 11, visiting Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. Travel records at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library confirm the trip and list Barnes as an accompanying participant.[^2] Barnes, speaking publicly for the first time on this episode, stated he had carried the secret for more than forty years. Connally died in 1993, more than a decade before the allegation became public, and never addressed it. The Barnes account is considered independent of and parallel to the alleged [[William J. Casey]]-Iran direct meetings: Connally acted as a message-carrier to Arab intermediaries who might influence Iranian decision-making, rather than negotiating directly with Iranians himself.[^2] The Barnes revelation was reported by the New York Times in March 2023 and is considered among the most significant new evidentiary developments in the October Surprise allegation, in part because the travel records are documentary and Barnes's account is independently corroborated by the trip's timing and itinerary.[^2] ### Later Career In the 1980s, Connally became heavily invested in Texas real estate and oil. He was driven into personal bankruptcy by the Texas real estate crash of 1987, the most prominent political figure to suffer that fate in the Texas bust. His household possessions were sold at public auction in 1988.[^1] ### Footnotes [^1]: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress and contemporaneous press coverage. [^2]: Unger, Craig. *Den of Spies*. 2024; Barnes, Ben, interview. *The New York Times*, March 2023.