Harold Ford, Jr.
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Harold Eugene Ford, Jr. (born May 11, 1970) is a member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee, representing the state's 9th Congressional district (map (http://nationalatlas.gov/printable/images/preview/congdist/tn09_109.gif)) based in Memphis. A Democrat, he is currently his party's leading candidate for the Senate seat of retiring Majority Leader Bill Frist.
Ford was born in Memphis as the son of former Congressman Harold Ford, Sr. and Dorothy Ford. He has two brothers, Jake and Isaac Ford.
Ford graduated from St. Albans School for Boys in Washington, D.C. and received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1992 and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996.
In 1992 he was a staff aide to the United States Senate Committee on the Budget and in 1993 he was special assistant to the United States Department of Commerce. When his father decided not to seek a 12th term in Congress in 1996, Ford easily won the Democratic nomination. The 9th is so heavily Democratic that Ford's election in November was a foregone conclusion. He has been easily reelected every two years since then, and ran unopposed in 2000.
In 2003, Ford considered running for Mayor of Memphis against the incumbent, W. W. Herenton, a political rival of his family.
Ford is a member of several pro-growth coalitions, including the New Democrat Coalition, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Blue Dog Coalition. After the 2002 elections resulted in Democrats losing Congressional seats, Ford announced his candidacy for House Democratic Leader, challenging then-House Minority Whip Nancy Pelosi, arguing that current leadership was ineffective, but was soundly defeated. In spite of claims that Ford is a liberal, his voting record is fairly moderate by Democratic standards. Some suspect that Ford's record is more moderate than conventional wisdom would suggest for his district because of his ambitions for higher office. He supported the Iraq war, a ban on benefits for homosexual couples, and has told Democrats they should be more supportive of George W. Bush in some respects. However, Ford has opposed Bush's energy proposals (including oil drilling in ANWR), has demonstrated support for gay adoption, and indicates a willingness to implement a more lax illegal drug policy.
A few pundits suggested that he might be considered to be the Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate in 2004; however, he was ineligible for the office because he would not be 35 years of age by Inauguration Day (January 20, 2005).
On February 17, 2005, sources close to Ford revealed that he would soon announce his bid for the Senate. On April 6, 2005, during an interview on C-SPAN's call-in show Washington Journal, Ford confirmed that he would be running for the Senate. He filed the papers necessary to officially begin his Senate campaign on May 25, 2005 [1] (http://www.fordfortennessee.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=49&Itemid=34). The announcement was somewhat offset by the arrest of his uncle, state senator John Ford the next day. Many have speculated that this will hamper his campaign, particularly his ability to raise money early on, and that he will suffer from confusion with his uncle, particularly in the eastern part of Tennessee where he is not currently very well-known. Several pundits have speculated that Ford will run for mayor of Memphis in 2007 if his bid for the Senate seat fails. There is also speculation that his uncle's situation will be perceived as weakening him sufficiently for at least one other "big-name" Tennessee Democrat to enter the Senate primary, making his nomination less than the near-certainty that it seemed to be in late 2004.
External links
- Official site (http://www.house.gov/ford/)
- 2006 Senate campaign site (http://www.fordfortennessee.com/)
- US Congress biography (http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000262)
- 2004 campaign finance data (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00003218&cycle=2004)
- Harold Ford Jr Reaches for the Stars (http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,397281,00.html) (TIME Magazine article)
| Preceded by: Harold Ford, Sr. | U.S. Representative for Tennessee's 9th Congressional District 1997- | Succeeded by: Incumbent |