TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Former Florida Gov. Buddy McKay, who lost to Jeb Bush in 1998 but remained in office for 23 days following the sudden death of Gov. Lawton Chiles, has died. He was 91 years old.
The former Democratic governor took a nap after lunch Tuesday at his home in Ocklawaha, Florida, but never woke up, his son Ken McKay told The Associated Press. All of the then-governor’s adult children were in attendance, he said.
“It was a very peaceful death of a great life.” “It’s a shame,” said MacKay, who hopes his father will be remembered as a defender of Florida’s environment and an advocate for minorities.
Floridians respected MacKay not only for his brief service as governor, but also for his time as a state legislator, congressman, and diplomat.
“Mourning the passing of Buddy MacKay,” Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on X. “MacKay, a U.S. Air Force veteran and lifelong public servant, served our country and state. May he rest in peace.”
President Bush offered condolences to McKay’s family in a social media post and said his one-time rival had served the state “with honor and distinction.”
McKay, who was Chile’s deputy governor, died at the governor’s residence on December 12, 1998, six weeks after being defeated by President Bush in the 1998 gubernatorial election. This put MacKay in the top job for three weeks, where he focused on overseeing the final stages of the transition to the Bush administration.
MacKay recalled in a 2012 interview with The Associated Press: “It was so sad. “(Chiles) had grown to that point over the course of his tenure and then everything stopped. There was nothing for me to do other than be a caretaker and try to help with the transition. The most important thing we could do was get out of the way. .”
The MacKays never moved into the mansion, and Florida hasn’t had a Democrat in the governor’s office since.
“He was very sensitive to the fact that he was there as the ultimate custodian,” said Jim Krog, the late Democratic political strategist and McKay adviser. “He clearly recognized that he was governor and there were loose ends that needed to be tied up.”
MacKay retired from politics in 1990 when he persuaded Chiles, who had retired from the U.S. Senate two years earlier, to run for governor against incumbent Republican Bob Martinez. The Chiles-MacKay team was elected again that November and again in 1994.
MacKay, who also served in the Florida Legislature and U.S. House of Representatives, ran for statewide office three times and lost each time, but never lost his quiet sense of humor.
“I left politics because of illness,” he said the day after losing to Bush. “The voters are sick and tired of me.”
A seasoned policy expert, MacKay retired to his home near Ocala in central Florida after a political career as President Bill Clinton’s special envoy to Latin America. McKay stood by the former president at a time when the Monica Lewinsky scandal caused many Democrats to distance themselves from Clinton. He stayed busy during the last years of his life doing pro bono work for Southern Counsel and serving in a mediation role in the juvenile court system.
MacKay narrowly missed election to the U.S. Senate in 1988, losing by less than 1 percent to Republican Connie Mack III. It was the closest statewide race in state history until the 2000 presidential primary between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
In a Democratic primary that included former Gov. Claude Kirk, a one-time Republican, and Reubin Askew, who resigned before the election, MacKay rebounded from a runner-up finish in a six-way primary to win the runoff. Then-Insurance Commissioner Bill Gunter.
With Democrats still largely controlling Florida politics, MacKay was expected to beat Mack for Chiles’ seat.
But Mack, who was also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, came up with a catchphrase that MacKay couldn’t shake: “Hey buddy, you’re a progressive” as moderate Florida shifted away from traditional Democratic politics.
Two days after the 1988 election, official voting results showed Mac winning by less than 34,000 votes out of more than 4 million cast.
Like many of Florida’s leading Democratic politicians in the second half of the 20th century, MacKay began his political career at the height of the state’s unification movement.
MacKay grew up working in the fields with black laborers, but attended segregated schools and ate in segregated restaurants.
“It was quite distressing,” he said. “It was always very awkward. “My family was involved in farming, and I worked many days in the field with African-American sailors, and some of those adults became part of my family and raised me.”
MacKay’s views on race and the possibility of desegregation changed dramatically during his service in the U.S. Air Force between 1955 and 1958.
“It wasn’t until I joined the military that I saw the potential to overcome this problem,” MacKay said. “I went in there and from day one it was fully integrated and there were no problems. “It was a very freeing experience.”
Kenneth H. MacKay Jr. was born March 22, 1933 in Ocala.
“In the Old South, where I come from, ‘buddy’ meant junior,” MacKay said. “The judge and the teachers at school called me Kenneth, but no one called me that. “I’m more of a friend than Kenneth.”
After leaving the company, he became a lawyer and citrus grower. He won election to the state House of Representatives in 1968, state Senate in 1974, and House of Representatives in 1982 before losing to the United States Senate.
MacKay spent his final years in the home he shared with his wife, Anne, in Lake Weir. According to his son Ken, MacKay remained active in his church and enjoyed spending time on the family farm tending camellia trees, citrus fruits and raising cattle.
