Chris Dodd Biography

Democrat Chris Dodd was a United States senator from Connecticut for 30 years, from 1981 until 2011.

The son of Thomas J. Dodd, a U.S. senator throughout the 1960s, young Chris Dodd served two years in the Peace Corps after graduating from Providence College in 1966. He went to the University of Louisville School of Law while serving in the Army Reserves, then practiced law for a couple of years before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1974. After three terms he was elected in 1980 to the Senate, serving there for three decades. (He was re-elected in 1986, 1992, 1998 and 2004.)

During his Senate tenure, Chris Dodd’s most notable achievements came in the areas of family law, education, banking and Central American foreign relations. A one-time presidential hopeful (he made an aborted attempt for the party nomination in the 2008 race), Dodd’s later years were clouded by controversies surrounding his close ties to the financial industry while serving as Chairman of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. He did not seek re-election in 2010, and was succeeded by Democrat Richard Blumenthal.