Craig Truax

Combs Craig Truax was an American political aide who served as Chairman of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania from 1963 to 1967 and Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 1967 to 1968.

Early life

Truax was born in Gosport, Indiana. He served in the United States Army from 1946 to 1947 and the United States Navy from 1951 to 1954. He moved to Pennsylvania in 1954 to become editor of the Wellsboro Gazette.

Career

Truax worked as a publicist for the Pennsylvania Republican state committee during the 1956 United States presidential election. He became an assistant to the majority leader of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1957, but soon returned to the state committee as an assistant to the chairman. In 1959, he was named executive director. In 1963, he succeeded George I. Bloom as party chairman after Bloom became Secretary of the Commonwealth. Truax was appointed Secretary of the Commonwealth in 1967 by Governor Raymond P. Shafer. He resigned on January 1, 1968, to become director of programs for the Pennsylvania House Republican Caucus, a job he held until his death on December 28, 1985.