Harold Ford, Jr.

Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. was a representative for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1997 to 2007 (105th-109th Congresses). After his father, Harold Ford, Sr., announced his retirement from the House in 1996, Ford ran to succeed him, making him the first African American to succeed a parent in Congress. When elected, Ford was one of the youngest members of Congress in U.S. history and the youngest in the 105th and 106th Congresses. Before his congressional service, Ford was a staff aide for the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget and a special assistant at the U.S. Department of Commerce. Ford served on Education and the Workforce, Government Reform and Oversight, Financial Services, and the Budget committees. After his tenure in Congress, Ford served as a visiting professor, chair of the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and at Wall Street firm Morgan Stanley as a managing director. He earned a bachelor’s degree in American history from the University of Pennsylvania and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan School of Law.