Harold Ford, Jr. (1970- )

August 08, 2007 
/ Contributed By: Elwood Watson

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Former Congressman Harold Ford

Courtesy Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Harold Eugene Ford, Jr. was born in Memphis, Tennessee on May 11, 1970. He is a past chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Tennessee.ย  During his tenure in Congress Ford represented the stateโ€™s 9th congressional district from 1997 until 2007. This district included most of Memphis.ย  Bucking tradition, Ford did not seek reelection to his House seat in 2006 and instead unsuccessfully sought the Senate seat that was being vacated by the retiring senator Bill Frist.ย  Ford was the only African American member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate Democrats.

After the 2002 mid term elections resulted in Democrats losing Congressional seats, Ford announced his desire to be House Minority Whip based on Democratic leader Nancy Pelosiโ€™s charge that the democratic leadership was less than competent.ย  Ford was unsuccessful in his election bid, but surprised many politicians and pundits on both sides of the political aisle with the amount of support he garnered. A few observers suggested that he might become the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004.ย  However, given the fact that he was only thirty-four years old, he was ineligible for the office. Ford would be four months shy of thirty-five on Inauguration Day (January 20, 2005).

In Congress, Ford had a moderate voting record.ย  He supported a restriction of benefits for same-sex couples, as well as the Federal Marriage Amendment (which would ban same-sex marriage).ย  He was one of the stronger Democratic voices (along with Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut) in support of the Iraq War and was critical of Senate Democrats who attempted to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Moreover, he was one of the few Democrats who voted in support of the 2006 Bankruptcy Bill.ย  He also supported limitations on abortion, defining himself as a โ€œpro-lifeโ€ candidate.ย  However, he also opposed President George W. Bushโ€™s energy proposals (including oil drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), spoke in support of adoption rights of same-sex couples, embraced universal healthcare coverage, announced his opposition to the death penalty, and indicated a desire to reexamine illegal drug polices.

Harold Ford was not immune from controversy. A June 7, 2005 article in The Washington Times reported that from 1998 to 2003, he took more than 60 privately funded trips but did not file travel disclosure forms with the House clerk for the trips, as required by the chamberโ€™s ethics rules, until August 2003.ย  Fordโ€™s office claimed the Congressman filed the required financial-disclosure statements for the trips as they were taken.

In October 2006, as polls indicated that Ford maintained a slight lead in the Tennessee Senate race against Bob Corker, the National Republican Party ran a controversial television advertisement featuring a blonde woman who claimed to have met Ford, who is single, at a Playboy Club Party.ย  Although Fordโ€™s opponent Corker asked the Republican leadership to pull the ad, it refused. Corker pulled ahead in the polls and went on to defeat Ford in the November election by three percentage points. Even though Ford was unsuccessful in his senate run, a number of people were impressed by how close the race was given both his age and the fact that he had run in a traditional southern state.

Ford is the son of former congressman Harold Ford, Sr. and Dorothy (nee Bowles). He has three brothers, Jake, Isaac, and Andrew, and one sister, Ava. He is currently vice president at the Merrill Lynch Company.

About the Author

Author Profile

Elwood Watson is a professor of History, African American Studies, and Gender Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is the co-editor of two anthologies There She Is, Miss America: The Politics of Sex, Beauty and Race in Americaโ€™s Most Famous Pageant and The Oprah Phenomenon. He is the sole editor of the anthology Searching The Soul of Ally McBeal: Critical Essays. His book Outsiders Within: Black Women in the Legal Academy After Brown v. Board was published in 2008 by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. The author and co-author of several award winning articles, he is currently working on an anthology that explores performance and anxiety of the male body and a second monograph that explores the contemporary race realist movement. Watson is also the co-author of the forthcoming book, Beginning A Career in Academia: A Graduate Guide for Students of Color Routledge Press (2014).

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Watson, E. (2007, August 08). Harold Ford, Jr. (1970- ). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/ford-harold-jr-1970/

Source of the Author's Information:

Harold Ford Jr.
(http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=F000262).
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.ย  Retrieved on
2007-05-18; Theo Emery, โ€œFamily ties could bind a political
advancementโ€
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/03/10/famliey_ties_could_bind_a_political_advancement/?page=1),
Boston Globe, March 10, 2006.ย  Retrieved on 2007-04-25; Jonathan
Darman, โ€œThe Path to Powerโ€ Newsweek, October 30, 2006; William Addams
Reitwiesner,ย  Ancestry of Harold Ford (http://www.wargs.com/political/
fordh.html).ย  Retrieved on 2007-05-18;
http://www.house.gov/ford/about/index.shtml

Further Reading