So, too, in 1950, when Nixon ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas for a seat in the Senate. He won, as is known, thanks in part to casting her as "the Pink Lady" who was soft on communism. But again, alongside the red-baiting was Nixon's less well remembered strategy of styling himself as the down-to-earth family man, as he toured California in a ramshackle wood-paneled station wagon with Pat in tow.