Joe Lieberman | |
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.jpg) Official portrait, 2005 | |
| United States Senator from Connecticut | |
| In office January 3, 1989 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Lowell Weicker |
| Succeeded by | Chris Murphy |
| Chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee | |
| In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2013 | |
| Preceded by | Susan Collins |
| Succeeded by | Tom Carper |
| In office June 6, 2001 – January 3, 2003 | |
| Preceded by | Fred Thompson |
| Succeeded by | Susan Collins |
| In office January 3, 2001 – January 20, 2001 | |
| Preceded by | Fred Thompson |
| Succeeded by | Fred Thompson |
| 21st Attorney General of Connecticut | |
| In office January 5, 1983 – January 3, 1989 | |
| Governor | William O'Neill |
| Preceded by | Carl R. Ajello |
| Succeeded by | Clarine Nardi Riddle |
| Member of the Connecticut State Senate | |
| In office January 1971 – January 1981 | |
| Preceded by | Edward L. Marcus |
| Succeeded by | John Daniels |
| Constituency |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | Joseph Isadore Lieberman February 24, 1942 Stamford, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Died | March 27, 2024 (aged 82) New York City, U.S. |
| Resting place | Congregation Agudath Sholom |
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| Other political affiliations |
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| Spouses |
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| Children | 3 |
| Education | Yale University (BA, LLB) |
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Early political career
U.S. Senator from Connecticut
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Joseph Isadore Lieberman (/ˈliːbərmən/; February 24, 1942 – March 27, 2024) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States senator from Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. A former member of the Democratic Party, he was its nominee for vice president of the United States in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. During his final term in office, he was officially listed as an Independent Democrat and caucused with and chaired committees for the Democratic Party.
Lieberman was elected as a Democrat in 1970 to the Connecticut Senate, where he served three terms as majority leader. After an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980, he served as the Connecticut attorney general from 1983 to 1989. He narrowly defeated Republican Party incumbent Lowell Weicker in 1988 to win election to the U.S. Senate and was re-elected in 1994, 2000, and 2006. He was the Democratic Party nominee for vice president in the 2000 presidential election, running with presidential nominee and then Vice President Al Gore, and becoming the first Jewish candidate on a U.S. major party presidential ticket.[2][3]
In the 2000 presidential election, Gore and Lieberman won the popular vote by a margin of more than 500,000 votes but lost the deciding Electoral College to the Republican George W. Bush / Dick Cheney ticket 271–266. He also unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. During his Senate re-election bid in 2006, Lieberman lost the Democratic primary election but won re-election in the general election as a third party candidate under the Connecticut for Lieberman party label.
Lieberman was officially listed in Senate records for the 110th and 111th congresses as an Independent Democrat,[4] and sat as part of the Senate Democratic Caucus. After his speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in which he endorsed John McCain for president, he no longer attended Democratic Caucus leadership strategy meetings or policy lunches.[5] The Senate Democratic Caucus voted to allow him to keep the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Subsequently, he announced that he would continue to caucus with the Democrats.[6] Before the 2016 election, he endorsed Hillary Clinton for president and in 2020 endorsed Joe Biden for president.
As senator, Lieberman introduced and championed the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and legislation that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. During debate on the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as the crucial 60th vote needed to pass the legislation, his opposition to the public health insurance option was critical to its removal from the resulting bill signed by President Barack Obama.[7]
- ^ Voght, Kara (November 7, 2023). "Joe Lieberman Will Not Leave His Fellow Democrats Alone". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 11, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
Officially he'd ended his 24 years in the Senate as an independent, but when he moved to the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale, Lieberman registered to vote with the party he'd joined amid heady idealism of the Kennedy years.
- ^ "The Lieberman Phenomenon" (PDF). Dr. Samuel Heilman – The Edah Journal Volume 1:1. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 2, 2020. Retrieved December 31, 2011.
- ^ "Joseph Lieberman". The Washington Times. Retrieved September 3, 2008.[dead link]
- ^ "Senators of the 110th Congress". U.S. Senate. January 3, 2006. Archived from the original on December 27, 2006.
- ^ "The Hill". The Hill. Archived from the original on December 9, 2008. Retrieved May 24, 2010.
- ^ Hulse, Carl (November 19, 2008). "Democrats Gain as Stevens Loses Race". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 2, 2020. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
- ^ Halpin, Helen A.; Harbage, Peter (June 1, 2010). "The Origins And Demise Of The Public Option". Health Affairs. 29 (6): 1117–1124. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.2010.0363. ISSN 0278-2715. PMID 20530340. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved May 3, 2016.