Richard A. Boehning was born on July 2, 1937 in Rensselaer, Indiana, and attended Francesville High School. In 1957 he married Phyllis Albrecht Gutwein whom he would later have five children with and who would serve on the Lafayette City Council from 1984 to 1999. In 1959 he graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science degree and graduated from the Indiana University School of Law in 1961. In 1961 he became a precinct committeeman in Francesville and in 1964 he was appointed as Lafayette's city attorney by Mayor Donald W. Blue. On March 7, 1966 he announced that he would run for the Republican nomination for state representative from Tippecanoe County. On May 3, 1966, he and Frances Gaylord won the top two Republican primary and both received the Republican nomination and both went on to win in the general election against Democratic nominees Harry A. Fink and Robert L. Huffman. In the 1967 session he served as chairman of the Cities and Towns House committee and served as a member on the Judiciary and Natural Resources and Conservation committees. On November 27, 1968 he was elected as House Majority Floor Leader after defeating four other candidates on the third ballot with 36 out of 71 votes. On January 13, 1971 he introduced an constitutional amendment to Indiana's constitution that would lower the voting age from 21 years old to 18 years old two months ahead of the federal 26th Amendment. He considered running in the Republican primary against Representative Earl Landgrebe in the Second Congressional District during the 1970 election, but later chose not to. On November 9, 1971 Boehning announced that he would challenge Landgrebe for the Republican nomination in Indiana's Second Congressional District later citing Landgrebe's narrow victory in 1970 and him being the only member of Indiana's Republican delegation to refuse to join the Indiana section of the Committee for the Re-Election of the President. During the primary Charles A. Halleck, who had served in the district before Landgrebe and House Majority and Minority Leader, gave his endorsement to Boehning. Landgrebe narrowly defeated Boehning with 34,813 votes for 54.20% against his 29,417 votes for 45.80% of the vote.
