Former Democratic vice presidential nominee and U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman died Wednesday at the age of 82 due to complications from a fall, his family revealed. He was 82 years old.
Lieberman’s family released the following statement:
Former United States Senator Joseph I. Lieberman died this afternoon, March 27, 2024, in New York City due to complications from a fall. He was 82 years old.
His beloved wife, Hadassah, and members of his family were with him as he passed. Senator Lieberman’s love of God, his family, and America endured throughout his life of service in the public interest.”
Lieberman served as a United States senator for Connecticut from 1989 to 2013. During his final term in office, he was listed as an independent Democrat and caucused with and chaired committees for the Democrats.
Lieberman is most famously known for being chosen as then vice-president Al Gore’s running mate for the 2000 presidential election. He was the first Jewish American to be nominated on a major party’s ticket.
Gore and Lieberman came within 537 votes of winning Florida which would have handed the, the 2000 election. The Gore campaign then desperately tried for weeks to find ways to steal the election.
But the United States Supreme Court stopped Team Gore’s scheme in a famous 5-4 ruling.
Lieberman remained quite active in the political sphere after retirement. As Hearst Connecticut Media notes, Lieberman most recently helped establish the No Labels Party in an attempt to put a third-party candidate on the ballot in the 2024 presidential race.
Joseph Isadore Lieberman was born on February 24, 1942, in Stamford, Connecticut. He was the son of Henry Lieberman, who ran a liquor store, and Marcia Lieberman.
He was educated at Yale and received his undergraduate and law degrees from the university.
Lieberman was elected to the Connecticut State Senate three years after completing law school. He served there for a decade and later for six years (1983-88) as the state’s attorney general.
In 1988, he challenged Sen. Lowell Weicker, an ultra-liberal “Republican,” and was famously endorsed by many notable conservatives, including the great William F. Buckley Jr., the host of Firing Line and founder of the National Review.
Lieberman won by just over 10,000 votes.
As an Orthodox Jew, Lieberman also kept the Sabbath, which meant avoiding all business from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown, making him unique amongst all senators as Politico notes.
