Joe Lieberman Passes Away at 82 Years Old

(UnitedHeadlines.com) – Former centrist Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, 82, died March 27 in New York City from complications due to a fall at his home in the Bronx.

His wife, Hadassah, and his family members were with him when he died, according to a statement from Lieberman’s family.

The oldest of three children, Lieberman was born on Feb. 24, 1942, in Stamford, Connecticut. He stated that President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address, challenging people to “ask what you can do for your country,” inspired him to enter public service.

In 1962, while attending Yale University, he worked on the successful U.S. Senate campaign of Abraham Ribicoff, going on to intern at his office in Washington, D.C. After graduating from Yale Law School in 1967, he went on to run successfully for the Connecticut state Senate in 1970. He served in the state Senate for 10 years, with the last six as majority leader. After running unsuccessfully for a U.S. House seat in 1980, he was elected as state attorney general in 1982, winning re-election four years later. He went on to run successfully for a U.S. Senate seat in 1988, where he served four terms.

In the 2000 election, Lieberman was named as Al Gore’s Democratic vice presidential nominee, becoming the first Jewish American to appear on the presidential ticket for one of the two major parties. Four years later, Lieberman himself unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination. Despite losing the Connecticut Democratic Senate primary in 2006, he won re-election after he ran as an independent.

When he announced that he would not be seeking a fifth term in 2011, Lieberman stated that though he has “not always fit comfortably into conventional political boxes,” his first responsibility was to serve his constituents and not a political party, working across party lines to ensure “good things get done for them.”

After leaving his role as a senator, Lieberman served as founding chairman of No Labels, a centrist group that wants to run a “unity ticket” for the 2024 presidential race, which both major parties have criticized as having the potential for being a spoiler.