Thomas Minehart was born on May 23, 1907 to John Minehart and Elizabeth Cosgrove Minehart. He graduated from Temple University and Temple University School of Law. He was from a politically active family. His father had been a member of the City Council and his uncle, Thomas Z. Minehart, served as a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1907 to 1908. In 1936, Minehart was elected to the Philadelphia City Council for the 6th district. Following the reorganization of the City Council in the 1919 city charter, Minehart was the only Democrat on the city council throughout his one term at City Hall. In 1942, he ran for the United States House of Representatives against Hugh Scott, but was defeated taking only 44% of the vote. After his defeat, he served as an attorney in the Office of Price Administration. Minehart later moved to Fort Washington in Montgomery County and continued his law practice after leaving government. In 1960, defeated Robert F. Kent a state representative from Crawford County in a race for Pennsylvania Auditor General. As auditor, he initiated audits of the suburban counties of Philadelphia and later clashed with Governor William Scranton after the latter took office and fired 32 Democrats from state offices. He later declined to approve a purchase of draperies that the governor ordered for a reception. In 1964, Minehart was term limited and ran for Pennsylvania Treasurer against Robert D. Fleming a member of the Pennsylvania State Senate from Pittsburgh.With the landslide victory in the 1964 presidential election, Minehart had little trouble in dispatching his opponent by 542,000 votes. In 1966, Minehart supported Bob Casey Sr. in the 1966 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election who was defeated by Milton Shapp; but defeated Shapp's preferred candidate, Robert P. Kane, for chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. As chairman, Minehart clashed with Democrats seeking reform around nomination rules after Hubert Humphrey was awarded the majority of delegates by the party even though Eugene McCarthy won the majority of votes in the Pennsylvania primary election. Minehart stepped down as auditor and offered to lead a reform commission as the state chairman. He appointed a commission to reform the rules; however, the committee met only twice and had one public hearing before the committee was effectively shut down, leading to charges that Minehart had double-crossed the party members who supported his election. Meinhart died on July 29, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania from heart failure.
