Former four-term US Senator for Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, has died after suffering complications from a fall, according to his family.
The first Jewish candidate in a major party was also Al Gore’s former running mate in the 2000 presidential race.
“His beloved wife, Hadassah, and members of his family were with him as he passed,” his family wrote in a statement.
The senator was also previously considered by the late Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) as his vice president in the 2008 national elections.
In his memoir, released in 2018, McCain shared that he regretted not choosing Leiberman, who had turned independent, after being discouraged by his advisors.
“They were giving me their best counsel. It was sound advice that I could reason for myself,” Mr. McCain wrote. “But my gut told me to ignore it, and I wished I had.”
“And I still believe, whatever the effect it would have had in some quarters of the party, that a McCain-Lieberman ticket would have been received by most Americans as a genuine effort to pull the country together for a change,” he wrote.
Despite this, the Jewish senators, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, maintained a friendship that earned them the nickname “Three Amigos.”
Lieberman was in the US Senate from 1989 to 2013. During his final term, he listed himself as an Independent Democrat; he caucused with the left and chaired committees for them.
Gore and the senator competed with George Bush and Dick Cheney in a very close fight, with only 537 votes for them to clinch the victory. For weeks, the two explored various ways to overturn the results. Until the US Supreme Court ordered them to halt their scheme in a 5-4 verdict
He also reflected on the impact of being the first Jewish candidate on a major ticket as he announced that he would not seek reelection.
“I can’t help but also think about my four grandparents and the journey they traveled more than a century ago. They came to America seeking freedom and they found it. They came to America hoping for opportunity and they got it,” he said at the time. “Even they could not have dreamed that their grandson would end up a U.S. senator and, incidentally, a barrier-breaking candidate for vice president.”
After his retirement, Lieberman had been instrumental in setting up the “No Labels” party in an attempt to put a third-party candidate on the ballot in the 2024 presidential race.
He also returned to practicing law and joined the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based conservative think tank, as co-chair of its American Internationalism Project.
Lieberman expressed, “There is an urgent need to rebuild a bipartisan—indeed, non-political—consensus for American diplomatic, economic, and military leadership in the world.”
