[1] Thomas Dorn was a school teacher, principal, and superintendent who hoped his son would have a political career, so he named the boy after William Jennings Bryan.

He was a signatory to the 1956 Southern Manifesto[4] that opposed the desegregation of public schools ordered by the Supreme Court in Brown v. Board of Education.

[10] In 1966, journalist Drew Pearson reported that Dorn was one of a group of congressmen who had received the "Statesman of the Republic" award from Liberty Lobby for his "right-wing activities".

He lost the Democratic primary to Charles 'Pug' Ravenel, who the South Carolina Supreme Court later ruled ineligible on residency grounds required by the state constitution.

In 1978, Dorn again sought the Democratic nomination for governor but was eliminated in a three-way race won by Richard Riley.