I don't want foreign policy developed just by one party and ride roughshod over the other party.

Political career
In the late 1950s Percy decided to enter politics. About a year after the murder of her twin sister Valerie in 1966 Sharon Percy married John D. Elizabeth Harting was a daughter of Phineas Fredrick Harting and Belle Aschenbach.

In 1966 he was elected to the United States Senate from Illinois as a Republican; he served for almost twenty years until 1985 after he was defeated by Paul Simon. He was president of the Bell & Howell Corporation from 1949 to 1964. During his Senate career he concentrated on business and foreign relations.