Harold Ford, Jr.

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"Harold Ford" redirects here. For his father, the congressman from Tennessee from 1975 to 1997, see Harold Ford, Sr.

Harold Ford, Jr.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 9th district
In office January 7, 1997 – January 3, 2007
Preceded by	Harold Ford, Sr.
Succeeded by	Steve Cohen
Born	May 11, 1970 (1970-05-11) (age 38) Memphis, Tennessee
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Emily Threlkeld
Religion	Baptist

Harold Eugene Ford, Jr. (born May 11, 1970) is the current chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee. Ford represented the state's 9th congressional district, centered in Memphis, from 1997 to 2007. Ford did not seek reelection to his House seat in 2006 when he unsuccessfully sought the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Bill Frist. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was part of the Blue Dog Coalition.

[edit] Family and education

Ford is the son of former Congressman Harold Ford, Sr. and Dorothy Bowles Ford.^[1] He has three brothers — Jake, Isaac, and Andrew — and one sister, Ava.^[2] His family has long been prominent in Memphis' black community; their influence dates back to the late 19th century, when E.H. Crump, a prominent white Democrat, dominated city and state politics and befriended Harold Ford Jr.'s grandfather N.J. Ford.^[3]

Ford was baptized at his church, Mt. Moriah-East Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Double Tree Elementary School, a public Montessori school in South Memphis, and he graduated from St. Albans School for Boys, a university-preparatory school in Washington, D.C.. He received a B.A. in American history from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1992.^[4] After graduation he was a staff aide to the Senate Budget Committee, and in 1993 he became special assistant to the United States Department of Commerce.^[5]

Ford received a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1996. During his campaign for the House of Representatives, he sat for and failed the Tennessee bar exam, stating that he intends to try again.^[6]

Ford is married to Emily Threlkeld, who works in public relations for Carolina Herrera in New York. They married on April 26, 2008. ^[7]

[edit] House of Representatives career

When Harold, Sr. decided not to seek a 12th term in Congress in 1996, Harold, Jr. entered the race and became the favorite in the Democratic primary — widely regarded as the real contest in the heavily Democratic, black-majority 9th district. Ford arranged his schedule for his last semester of law school so he would not have Monday or Friday classes^[8] and would be able to fly home to Memphis for an extended weekend each week to continue his campaign. As expected, he easily won the Democratic primary, followed by election in November. He was reelected four times without substantive Republican opposition by an average of 80% of the vote.^[8]

On October 10, 2002, Harold Ford was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.

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.^[9] Ford was defeated but exceeded initial expectations in the amount of support he received.^[10]Although his name was mentioned as a possible Democratic vice president candidate in 2004,^[11] he was ineligible for the office due to his age (four months shy of thirty-five on Inauguration Day 2005).

A June 7, 2005 article in The Washington Times reported that from 1998 to 2003, Ford took 61 privately funded trips but did not file travel disclosure forms with the House clerk for the trips as required by the chamber's ethics rules until August 2003. Ford's office called the late filing of the reports a "mere oversight," since Ford had filed the required financial-disclosure statements for the trips as they were taken.^[12]

In November 2005, when Ohio Republican Congresswoman Jean Schmidt implied that Pennsylvania Democrat John Murtha was a "coward" in response to Murtha's proposal for a redeployment of American forces in Iraq, Ford charged across the House floor to the Republican side during the resulting uproar in the chamber, shouting "Say it to Murtha!" (or "Say Murtha's name!" depending on the source) while waving his finger at Schmidt. He had to be restrained by fellow Democrat Dave Obey of Wisconsin. Like many Democrats, Ford believed Schmidt's remarks (which she later withdrew) were an unwarranted "cheap shot" against Murtha, a veteran of the Marine Corps.^[13]

In Congress, Ford had an ideologically varied voting record. He supported a ban on benefits for same-sex couples, as well as the Federal Marriage Amendment (which would ban same-sex marriage). He told Democrats they should be more supportive of the Iraq War and criticized Senate Democrats who attempted to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito. He was one of the few Democrats who voted for the Bankruptcy Bill, and he supported some restrictions on abortion, defining himself as a pro-life candidate, including supporting a ban on intact dilation and extraction (called by its opponents, partial-birth abortion). He supported the Republican effort to intercede in the Terri Schiavo case.^[14] However, he also opposed President George W. Bush's energy proposals (including oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), demonstrated support for adoption rights of same-sex couples, is in favor of federal funding of embryonic stem cell research, supported universal healthcare coverage, opposed the death penalty and indicated a willingness to reform illegal drug policy.^[15][16]

In addition, Ford sat on the House Budget Committee and the House Committee on Financial Services. He also served on the Transformation Advisory Group, a group of political, military and academic leaders who worked with the Department of Defense to assess the needs of the armed forces. Ford was a member of the New Democrat Coalition, the Congressional Black Caucus and the Blue Dog Coalition.^[17] His popularity among white voters in the Memphis area steadily increased during his decade in Congress; in 2000, for instance, he won 40% of the white vote.^{[citation needed]}

In 2002, Ford was mentioned as a possible Democratic candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Fred Thompson, but he declined to run. Instead, he supported fellow Congressman Bob Clement who would lose to former Republican Governor Lamar Alexander in the general election.^[18]

In 2006, Ford did not run for re-election to the House of Representatives, due to his campaign for the United States Senate in Tennessee, which he lost. Instead, his younger brother, Jake Ford, ran for the 9th district seat as an Independent, but lost to Democrat Steve Cohen.

[edit] 2006 Senate campaign

Harold Ford Jr. on the campaign trail

Main article: Tennessee United States Senate election, 2006

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.^[19] He filed the papers necessary to officially begin his Senate campaign on May 25, 2005.

Democratic State Senator Rosalind Kurita briefly challenged Ford for the nomination but dropped out of the primary because of inadequate fundraising, effectively handing Ford the nomination.^[20] On August 3, 2006, Ford overwhelmingly won the Democratic primary. After the primary, Ford's supporters held a large victory celebration at Nashville's LP Field. Among the speakers was former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Ford faced Republican Bob Corker in the November 2006 election. Not long after Corker's primary victory was assured, Ford challenged Corker to seven televised debates across the state. In response, Corker said he would debate Ford, though he did not agree to seven debates.

"Harold, call me," says a blond woman in Republican National Committee's controversial attack ad against Ford.

In October 2006, as polls indicated that Ford maintained a slight lead^{[citation needed]} in the Senate race, the Republican Party ran a television advertisement^[21] where a white woman, played by Johanna Goldsmith, talks about meeting Ford, who was unmarried at the time, at "the Playboy party."^[22] The ad was denounced by many people, including former Republican Senator and Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton, William Cohen, who called it “a very serious appeal to a racist sentiment.” Corker himself asked the Republican leadership to pull the ad, which it refused to do. Corker subsequently pulled ahead in the polls.^[23]

Corker and Ford participated in a televised debate in Memphis on October 7, in Corker's hometown of Chattanooga on October 10, and in Nashville on October 28. In January 2006, NBC's Meet the Press extended an open invitation for the candidates to debate on the nationally-televised show. Ford accepted the invitation, stating that "any weekend would work for him." The Corker campaign did not agree.^{[citation needed]}

On November 8, Ford conceded the election to Corker, who defeated Ford by less than three percentage points.^[24]

[edit] Post-election activities

In December 2006, the Los Angeles Times reported that Ford told students at an L.A.-area school that he might run again in 2008 for the Senate seat held by Republican Lamar Alexander, but in January 2007 Ford said that he had no plans to challenge the incumbent.^[25][26] Instead, Ford has said that he "hopes to spend a lot of time at home, perhaps do some teaching and work with Governor Bredesen on some issues in Tennessee."^[27]

On January 25, 2007, Ford was named chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council.^[28]

In early March of 2007, Fox News Channel hired Ford as a "political contributor".^[29]

In March 2008, he moved to MSNBC, the NBC cable news network as a news analyst, appearing as a panelist on David Gregory's Race for the White House. ^[30]

Ford has been appointed visiting professor of public policy at Vanderbilt University and teaches a class on American political leadership.^[31] Also, Ford has joined the Merrill Lynch financial services firm as a vice chairman and senior policy advisor.^[32] In October 2007, Ford was appointed the inaugural Barbara Jordan Visiting Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.^[33]

[edit] Electoral history

2006 Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate (TN)

• Harold Ford, Jr., 79%
• Gary G. Davis, 10%
• John Jay Hooker, 6%

2006 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)

• Bob Corker (R), 51%
• Harold Ford, Jr. (D), 48%

[edit] See also

• "30 Something" Working Group

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• 2006 Senate campaign site
• US Congress biography
• The Ford Report: Unofficial Grassroots Blog
• 2006 campaign finance data
• About.com's Inside Profile of Rep. Harold Ford, Jr., 2006 Democratic Tennessee Candidate for U.S. Senate
• Harold Ford, Jr. Reaches for the Stars (TIME Magazine article)
• Why Harold Ford, Jr. Has a Shot (TIME Magazine article)
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post
• "Senate candidates spar over Corker's comments about Ford's Memphis 'political machine'", by Richard Locker, The Commercial Appeal, October 8, 2006
• The Path to Power, by Jonathan Darman, Newsweek, October 30, 200