His maternal great-grandfather was John Kruesi, a machinist and close Thomas Edison associate who was originally from Appenzell, Switzerland.

Underlining the district's conservative bent, Brock was re-elected in 1964 by over nine points amid Lyndon B. Johnson's 44-state landslide.

[citation needed] While in the Senate, Brock was a darling of the conservative movement but was less popular at home; his personality was somewhat distant by the standards of most politicians.

The most prominent and best-known name, at least initially, was probably 1970 gubernatorial nominee John Jay Hooker; somewhat surprisingly to most observers, the winner of the primary was Jim Sasser, who had managed Gore Sr.'s 1970 reelection campaign.

[citation needed] Sasser exploited lingering resentment of the Watergate scandal, which had concluded only about two years earlier.

Sasser was also aided by the popularity of the Democratic presidential candidate, Jimmy Carter, in Tennessee; the former Georgia Governor would win the state by a double-digit margin.

Upon the election of Ronald Reagan as U.S. president, Brock was appointed U.S. Trade Representative, a position he maintained until 1985, when he was made United States Secretary of Labor.

Dole, the runner-up to Vice President George H. W. Bush, was seen as a micromanager, who needed a strong personality like Brock to guide his campaign.

Brock's late start, in the fall of 1987, left little time to help find an avenue to cut into Bush's substantial lead in national polls.

Additionally, many viewed Brock as an imperious and inadequate manager, who badly misspent campaign funds largely on national headquarters staff and left Dole without adequate money for a Super Tuesday media buy.

In 1994 he won the Republican U.S. Senate primary in Maryland over the future convict Ruthann Aron but was soundly defeated (41%–59%) in the general election by the Democratic incumbent, Paul Sarbanes.