 Smith defeated a strong primary field that also included Waggoner Carr, the former attorney general who had lost the U.S. Senate race in 1966 to Republican John G. Tower; Dolph Briscoe, a future governor and wealthy landowner from Uvalde; liberal leader Don Yarborough of Houston, and Eugene Locke, the former deputy ambassador to South Vietnam whose campaign was managed by a Connally brother, Merrill I. Connally of Floresville.In 1972, Hill was nominated as attorney general when he upset the incumbent Crawford Martin by 100,000 votes in the Democratic primary.It was a year in which Texas incumbents fared particularly poorly in state races.