On election night 2000, Karl Rove, consultant to Gov. George W. Bush, was beside himself. The margins in his boss’s electoral battle with Vice President Al Gore were razor thin. Watching the results on multiple television screens and checking with his staff in Austin, he was still unsure of the outcome, so he telephoned John Alan Morgan, the elections expert he relied on above all others. After all, Morgan successfully urged that Rove target West Virginia and keep the pressure on to carry New Hampshire despite late worrisome polls there. Although Florida’s electoral votes would make news for several weeks, without the electoral votes from the states Morgan insisted be targeted, Bush would not have been elected. When Rove called on election night, Morgan, as always, reassured him. As the world now knows, Morgan was right.

Morgan, who advised leading political candidates since he worked for Bush’s father and later President Ronald Reagan, died in January at the age of 73.