Joseph Lieberman

U.S. Senator

Name at birth: Joseph Isadore Lieberman

Joe Lieberman became the first-ever Jewish candidate on a major party ticket when Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore chose him as his running mate in 2000. Lieberman has been politically active for most of his adult life: he served in the Connecticut Senate from 1971-1980 and as the state's Attorney General from 1983-88. In 1988 he was elected to the U.S. Senate, narrowly defeating incumbent Republican Lowell Weicker. He was re-elected in 1994 and again in 2000 (when he ran for senator as well as for vice-president). Like Bill Clinton, Lieberman also served as chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council. Gore and Lieberman lost the disputed 2000 elections to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Lieberman then ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, but dropped out of the race after poor showings in early primaries. His support of George W. Bush's conduct of the occupation of Iraq cost him the anti-war vote, and in 2006 he lost to challenger Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for his Senate seat. Lieberman ran for re-election as an independent and defeated Lamont in the subsequent general election.

Extra credit: Lieberman graduated from Yale (1964) and Yale Law School (1967)... He married the former Hadassah Freilich Tucker in 1983; it was the second marriage for both. They have a daughter, Hana; Lieberman also has two children, Matthew and Rebecca, from his first marriage to Elizabeth Haas (1965-81), and Hadassah has a son, Ethan, from her first marriage... Lieberman did not serve in the military; he received an educational deferment while in school, then a family deferment (as a father) upon his law school graduation in 1967... Lieberman ran parallel campaigns for the U.S. Senate and the vice-presidency in 2000; though he and Gore lost, Lieberman was re-elected as Connecticut's senator.

Lieberman appears with Al Sharpton in our report on Candidates 2004.