Allard K. Lowenstein
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Allard Kenneth Lowenstein, (January 16, 1929–March 14, 1980) was a liberal Democratic politician, a one-term congressman representing the 5th District in Nassau County, New York from 1968 until 1970.
Along with Midge Miller, in 1968, he started the "Dump Johnson" movement. He lost his seat due to gerrymandering in 1970. In 1971, he became head of the Americans for Democratic Action. That same year, he started the "Dump Nixon" movement, which earned him a place on Nixon's Enemies List. In 1972, he ran unsuccessfully for Congress in a Brooklyn district.
Lowenstein was well known for his ability to attract energetic young volunteers for his political causes. In the mid-1960s, he briefly served as dean of Stern Hall, then a men's dormitory at Stanford University, during which time he met and befriended undergraduate students David Harris and Dennis Sweeney. Over a decade later in 1980, Lowenstein was shot in New York City by this same Dennis Sweeney, now mentally ill and convinced that Lowenstein was plotting against him. Sweeney subsequently turned himself in to the police. Lowenstein, Sweeney, and the shooting are discussed in the autobiographical book Dreams Die Hard, written in 1982 by Harris, a onetime friend of both men.
Lowenstein was a graduate of Horace Mann School in New York City.