FORD, Harold, Jr.

FORD, Harold, Jr., (son of Harold Eugene Ford), a Representative from Tennessee; born in Memphis, Shelby County, Tenn., May 11, 1970; graduated from St. Albans School for Boys, Washington, D.C., 1988; B.A., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., 1992; J.D., University of Michigan Law School, 1996; staff aide, United States Senate Committee on the Budget, 1992; special assistant, United States Department of Commerce, 1993; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Fifth and to the four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1997-January 3, 2007); not a candidate for reelection, but was an unsuccessful candidate to the United States Senate in 2006.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996, Harold E. Ford Jr. succeeded his father, Harold E. Ford, who had held the Memphis-based seat since 1975. In contrast to his father’s generation of Black lawmakers in Congress who maintained the legislative legacies of the New Deal and the civil rights movement, Ford Jr. largely preferred to focus on broad policy items aimed at the middle class. “I vote what I believe is right. I challenge my leadership when I believe they are wrong,” Ford stated early in his career. “I don’t give them my vote because it’s the partisan and political thing to do.”¹

The eldest son of Harold Eugene and Dorothy Bowles Ford, Harold Eugene Ford Jr. was born on May 11, 1970, in Memphis, Tennessee. His father was a member of the Tennessee state legislature who won election to the U.S. House when Ford was four years old and went on to serve for more than two decades. At his father’s first swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill, Ford raised his hand and, according to his mother, declared, “This is what I want to be when I grow up.” His mother was a longtime employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. After his family moved to Washington, DC, in the late 1970s, Ford attended the elite St. Albans School for Boys. Ford believed that his time at the school helped shape his political philosophy. “For me, and for the other kids who were not white, it was a very heterogeneous place. . . . I had to get along with everybody. That helped me later on when I was in situations where you had to say, ‘Hey, let’s all get together and try to figure this out.’” In 1992, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania and worked on William J. Clinton’s presidential campaign. Following graduation, he served briefly as a staff aide for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget and as a special assistant at the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1996, Ford earned a law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law. Ford also worked on his father’s congressional campaigns in 1992 and 1994.²

After his father announced his retirement from the House in 1996, Ford ran to succeed him in the district encompassing the bulk of Memphis, Tennessee. The district was 60 percent African American and one of the most liberal in the state; more Black residents lived in Memphis than any southern city outside Texas. Ford’s father served as his chief campaign strategist. With his prominent family name, Ford distributed campaign buttons and T-shirts that simply read “Jr.” Ford ran on three issues: increased federal funding for education and job training; opposition to Medicare price hikes; and crime prevention. In the primary, Ford defeated Stephen Cohen, a state senator, and Rufus Jones, a state representative, with 61 percent of the vote. His Republican opponent in the general election was Rod DeBerry, a local politician who had run against Harold Ford Sr. for the seat in 1992 and 1994. During the campaign, Ford emphasized improvements to the educational system in a city with a high dropout rate, including the creation of summer programs for city youth. In the general election, Ford prevailed with 61 percent of the vote, making him the first African-American lawmaker to succeed a parent in Congress. In his subsequent four re-elections, Ford won with 79 percent or more. He ran unopposed in 2000.³

Shortly after he entered Congress in January 1997, Ford was chosen by his Democratic colleagues as freshman class president, making him the spokesperson for the newly elected Members and an intermediary with House leaders. In his first term, Ford received committee assignments on Education and the Workforce and Government Reform and Oversight. He left the latter committee in the 107th Congress (2001–2003) to accept a seat on the Financial Services Committee (his father had served on the predecessor to that committee). In the following Congress, Ford won a seat on the influential Budget Committee. Pegged as a rising star in the Democratic Party, Ford received widespread media attention when he delivered the keynote address at the 2000 Democratic National Convention.⁴

From the start, Ford insisted that his legislative agenda would be distinct from his father’s, who, like many Black lawmakers in the earlier generation, sought to protect and expand government-funded social programs and often prioritized issues affecting Black Americans. “I represent this entire district,” Ford said. “I respect my dad and . . . admire him a great deal,” he continued. “But I don’t think he would respect me if I didn’t have the fortitude to disagree with him if I felt he was wrong.” Ford worked to direct federal resources to Americans living in poverty, but he also emphasized different policies to fight poverty, such as expanding educational opportunities. Ford also reached out to some of his father’s political rivals, such as Willie Herenton, the mayor of Memphis, with whom the younger Ford had developed a good relationship. Ford stressed political pragmatism. Memphis city hall, he observed, is “the principal contracting agency with the federal government. I have a responsibility to secure what funds and resources I can for my state and city.”⁵

During his career, Ford sponsored measures to reform the country’s campaign finance system, equitably fund education, and support troops and veterans. Ford supported balancing the federal budget and frequently denounced spending that raised the national debt, particularly during the presidency of George W. Bush. In 2005, he bemoaned the Republican budget resolution and criticized its proposed spending. “I would be embarrassed if I had to vote for this budget,” he said. “Thankfully I do not, and frankly I do not even know if I am going to vote for all the things we are going to present on our side, for one reason. It is not balanced.”⁶

Ford often carved out independent positions and took policy stances different from those of the Congressional Black Caucus and House Democrats. “Ideology,” he once lamented, “makes it easier to resist good ideas.” Ford supported Democratic causes such as environmental protection and affirmative action, but he also backed measures that many in his party opposed, including private school vouchers, prayer in schools, and federal funding for faith-based charities. Ford made it a point to work with Republicans and supported GOP initiatives, including a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage and an effort to privatize Social Security. He voted for the USA PATRIOT Act in 2001, which vastly expanded the national security state following the terrorist attacks of September 11, and the 2003 Partial-Birth Abortion Act. He also supported the authorization to use military force in Iraq.⁷

In the House, Ford joined several caucuses that aligned with his efforts to limit federal spending and other policy interests, including the New Democrat Coalition and the Blue Dog Coalition. In 2002, Ford orchestrated what he described as an “underdog campaign” against Nancy Pelosi of California for the position of Democratic Leader that had been vacated by Richard Andrew Gephardt of Missouri. Ford joined the race late and publicized his candidacy through media outlets rather than using the traditional method of intense behind-the-scenes campaigning within the party caucus. The main issue separating the two contenders was the Iraq War resolution that Ford voted for in October 2002. The war separated Ford from many rank-and-file House Democrats who believed their constituents demanded a more aggressive opposition to the administration’s stance on Iraq. Ultimately, Pelosi prevailed, 177 to 29, in her historic run to become the first woman to lead a party in Congress.⁸

Throughout his time in the House, Ford made no secret of his ambition to serve in the Senate. “I absolutely look forward to serving the entire state of Tennessee one day,” he said in early 2000. That year, he proposed challenging Republican Tennessee Senator William H. Frist, but ultimately passed on the race to support the presidential campaign of fellow Tennessean Vice President Albert Gore Jr. In May 2005, Ford announced his candidacy for the seat that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said he would vacate in 2007. “With five good terms in the House behind me . . . I believe I’m ready to meet the challenges ahead of us in a way that will make Tennesseans as proud of me as I am of Tennessee,” Ford said. In the Senate, Ford said he would have a larger role shaping the country’s future.⁹

In his quest for the Senate, Ford worked to attract voters from across the political spectrum, campaigning on everyday issues including “health care, education, and economic development.” He emphasized his independence, once observing that “if I was doing the textbook thing that Democrats do . . . I’d say ‘Republicans want to short Social Security, they want to rob poor children of their college education, they want to deny families the education system.’ Don’t get me wrong, there’s some truth to that. But that’s not me. Just let me be myself.” Ford faced minimal opposition in the Democratic primary, and entered the general election amid widespread voter dissatisfaction with the George W. Bush administration. In the general, Ford faced Robert “Bob” Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor. Although Ford performed well in Tennessee’s major cities, including Memphis, Nashville, and Chattanooga, Corker received support in suburban counties around Nashville and East Tennessee. Ultimately, Corker prevailed in a narrow win with 51 percent of the vote to Ford’s 48 percent.¹⁰

After leaving the U.S. House in January 2007, Ford served as a visiting professor at Vanderbilt University and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas–Austin. He also succeeded Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack as chair of the Democratic Leadership Council, an organization that fostered a centrist approach to economic policy and politics. In 2008, he married Emily Threlkeld; the couple have two children: Georgia and Harold III. Ford moved to New York City where he worked in the financial services industry and as a political commentator on television. In 2010, he wrote a memoir of his time in politics. In late 2020, Ford was named vice chair at a large banking firm.¹¹

University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives