67 Facts About Gary Hart

Gary Warren Hart is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer.

Gary Hart was the front-runner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination until he dropped out amid revelations of extramarital affairs.

Gary Hart represented Colorado in the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987.

Gary Hart managed Senator George McGovern's successful campaign for the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination and McGovern's unsuccessful general election campaign against President Richard Nixon.

Gary Hart defeated incumbent Republican Senator Peter Dominick in Colorado's 1974 Senate election.

Gary Hart sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984, narrowly losing the race to former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Gary Hart declined to seek re-election to the Senate in 1986 and sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988.

Gary Hart was widely viewed as the front-runner until reports surfaced of an extramarital affair, and Hart withdrew from the race in May 1987.

Gary Hart re-entered the race in December 1987 but withdrew from the race again after faring poorly in the early primaries.

Gary Hart returned to private practice after the 1988 election and served in a variety of public roles.

Gary Hart co-chaired the Hart-Rudman Task Force on Homeland Security, served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council, and was the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland.

Gary Hart earned a doctorate in politics from the University of Oxford and has written for outlets such as The Huffington Post.

Gary Hart has written several books, including a biography of President James Monroe.

Gary Hart married Lee Ludwig in 1958, who died at age 85 on April 9,2021.

Gary Hart met his wife, Oletha "Lee" Ludwig, there, and they married in 1958.

Gary Hart became an attorney for the United States Department of Justice from 1964 to 1965 and was admitted to the Colorado and District of Columbia bars in 1965.

Gary Hart was special assistant to the solicitor of the United States Department of the Interior from 1965 to 1967.

In 1974, Gary Hart ran for the United States Senate, challenging two-term incumbent Republican Peter Dominick.

Gary Hart was aided by Colorado's trend toward Democrats during the early 1970s, as well as Dominick's continued support for the unpopular President Richard Nixon and concerns about the senator's health.

Gary Hart got a seat on the Armed Services Committee, and was an early supporter of reforming the bidding for military contracts, as well as an advocate for the military using smaller, more mobile weapons and equipment, as opposed to the traditional large-scale items.

Gary Hart served on the Environment and Public Work Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

From 1975 to 1976, Gary Hart was a member of the post-Watergate Church Committee that investigated abuses by the Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service.

Gary Hart served as the chairman of Senate Subcommittee on Nuclear Regulation.

Gary Hart flew over the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in an Army helicopter several times with fellow Senator Alan Simpson during the nuclear accident and led the subsequent Senate investigation into the incident.

On December 2,1981, Gary Hart was one of only four senators to vote against an amendment to President Reagan's MX missiles proposal that would divert the silo system by $334 million as well as earmark further research for other methods that would allow giant missiles to be based.

Gary Hart cosponsored the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984 with Senator Charles Mathias, which was signed into law.

Gary Hart's application contained an incorrect birth date that he had used inconsistently on official documents for 15 years.

Pundits such as Rowland Evans and Robert Novak suggested that Gary Hart's appointment was a cynical political maneuver designed to "clear the biographical decks" for the 1984 presidential election in an era when military service was perceived as a tacit prerequisite for the presidency.

In February 1983, during his second term, Gary Hart announced his candidacy for president in the 1984 presidential election.

Gary Hart instantly became the main challenger to Mondale for the nomination and appeared to have the momentum on his side.

Gary Hart's campaign was chronically in debt, to a final count of $4.75 million.

In states like Illinois, where delegates were elected directly by primary voters, Gary Hart often had incomplete delegate slates.

Gary Hart's ideas were criticized as too vague and centrist by many Democrats.

Shortly after he became the new frontrunner, it was revealed that Gary Hart had changed his last name, had often listed 1937 instead of 1936 as his birth date and had changed his signature several times.

Gary Hart was not close to his children, often leaving his wife to raise them completely alone.

Gary Hart lost the New York and Pennsylvania primaries, but won those of Ohio and Indiana.

However, Gary Hart maintained that unpledged superdelegates that had previously claimed support for Mondale would shift to his side if he swept the Super Tuesday III primary.

Once again, Gary Hart committed a faux pas, insulting New Jersey shortly before the primary day.

Gary Hart had refused to take money from Political Action Committees, and as a result he mortgaged his house to self-finance his campaign, and was more than $1 million in debt at the end of the campaign.

Gary Hart declined to run for re-election to the Senate, leaving office when his second term expired with the intent of running for president again.

On December 20,1986, Gary Hart was allegedly followed by an anonymous private investigator from a radio station where he had given the Democratic Party's response to President Reagan's weekly radio address.

That alleged investigator report claimed that Gary Hart had been followed to a woman's house, photographed there, and left sometime the following morning.

In late April 1987, the Miami Herald claimed that an anonymous informant contacted the paper to relate that Gary Hart was having an affair with a friend, claimed it was the equivalent of the Iran-Contra scandal, provided details about the affair, and told the Herald that Gary Hart was going to meet this person at his Washington, DC, townhouse on May 1, a Friday.

Gary Hart replied, "I'm not involved in any relationship," and alleged that he had been set up.

Gary Hart insisted that his interest in Rice was limited to her working as a campaign aide.

Gary Hart's staff believed that the media was filtering his message.

On May 8,1987, a week after the story broke, Gary Hart suspended his campaign after The Washington Post threatened to run a story about a woman Gary Hart had dated while separated from his wife, and his wife and daughter became similar subjects of interest for tabloid journalists.

Gary Hart rented a cottage in Oughterard, though he remained in contact with key members of his team.

Gary Hart competed in the New Hampshire primary and received 4,888 votes, about four percent.

Gary Hart gave a speech before the American international law firm Coudert Brothers on September 4,2001, exactly one week before the September 11 attacks, warning that within the next 25 years a terrorist attack would lead to mass deaths in the United States.

Gary Hart met with aviation executives in Montreal, Canada, on September 5,2001, to warn of terrorist attacks.

In late 2002, urged by former Oxford classmates, Hart began testing the waters for another run for the presidency, launching a website at GaryHartNews.

Gary Hart started his own blog in the spring of 2003, the first prospective presidential candidate to do so.

Gary Hart was considered a top candidate for either Director of National Intelligence, Secretary of Homeland Security or Secretary of Defense.

Gary Hart is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Gary Hart sits on the advisory board of Operation USA, a Los Angeles-based international relief and development agency.

Gary Hart is the author of James Monroe, part of the Times Books series on American presidents published in October 2005.

Gary Hart is an advisory board member for the Partnership for a Secure America, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to recreating the bipartisan center in American national security and foreign policy.

Gary Hart is a member of the ReFormers Caucus of Issue One.

Gary Hart founded the American Security Project in 2007 and he started a new blog in 2009.

In 2006, Gary Hart accepted an endowed professorship at the University of Colorado at Denver.

Gary Hart has been a visiting lecturer at Oxford University, Yale University, and the University of California.

Gary Hart is Chair of the US State Department's International Security Advisory Council, Chair of the US Defense Department's Threat Advisory Council, and Chair of the American Security Project.

Gary Hart was vice-chair of the Advisory Council for the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Co-chair of the US-Russia Commission, Chairman of the Council for a Livable World, and President of Global Green, the US affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev's environmental foundation.

Gary Hart has written or co-authored numerous books and articles, including five novels.

Gary Hart is the second former US Senator to hold the post.

In January 2000, Gary Hart revealed that he is the political thriller writer John Blackthorn, whose books include Sins of the Fathers and I, Che Guevara.