Current Position: U.S. Representative (since January 1999)
Credit: Congress Bio Directory
Why He Matters
A moderate Democrat, Larson eased into the office of House Democratic Caucus chair after Rahm Emanuel left the House to become chief of staff for President Barack Obama. Larson had won a three-way race for House Democratic Caucus vice chairman, the lowest-ranking post in the House Democratic leadership, in February 2006 after then-Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) was appointed Senator. His position as vice-chair made him a natural choice to move up in the leadership, and he won easily.
Larson has been a harsh critic of the Iraq war from the beginning, and he proposed legislation in 2007 to rescind the President’s authority to wage war in Iraq. He has worked to expand health care coverage and prescription drug coverage throughout his time in the House, and has been a longtime advocate of alternative energy sources, which are already being used in his home state of Connecticut.
He has served Connecticut’s 1st Congressional district since 1999.
At a Glance
Current Position: House Democratic Caucus Chairman
Career History: Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus (February 2006 to present); Member of the United States Congress (1999 to present); Connecticut Senate President Pro Tempore (1987 to 1995); Member of the Connecticut State Senate (1983 to 1995)
Birthday: July 22, 1948
Hometown: East Hartford, Conn.
Alma Mater: Central Connecticut State University, B.S. 1971 (history)
Spouse: Leslie
Religion: Catholic
DC Office: 1005 Longworth House Office Building, 202-225-2265
State/District Office: Hartford, 860-278-8888
Email
Web site
Path to Power
Raised with seven siblings in a housing project in East Hartford, Larson had a father who was a fireman and a mother who worked in the state capitol building. He worked as a high school teacher and athletic coach after graduating from Central Connecticut State University. After buying an insurance company, Larson first ran for public office in 1982, when he won a seat in the Connecticut State Senate. After four years, he became the Senate President Pro Tempore, where he served until 1995.
A moderate Democrat, he appeared to be in good position to become governor in 1994, but he was surprised in the primary by Comptroller Bill Curry (D), who had support from unions and liberals. After returning to the private sector for a couple more years, Larson again ran for public office when Rep. Barbara Kennelly (D-Conn.) announced her retirement in 1998. He was an underdog in the primary against the more liberal Secretary of State Miles Rapoport (D), who had the endorsement of the Hartford Courant. But Larson squeaked out a victory and then won easily in the general election in a heavily Democratic district. He has never had problems getting re-elected.
Larson was the ranking Democrat on the House Administration Committee before joining the House Ways and Means Committee in 2005. Then, in 2006, Larson ran for Vice-Chairman of the Democratic Caucus and once again was the underdog to Reps. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.). Larson, who entered the race late and had fewer public commitments, was helped by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.). When Schakowsky finished third in the first ballot, she backed Larson, who won a close election against the more moderate Crowley in the second ballot.
Following the 2008 elections, Democratic Caucus Chair Rahm Emanuel left the House to become chief of staff for President Barack Obama. Larson gathered support from the rest of the House leadership and took the spot without serious opposition. "To earn the respect of our diverse caucus, you have to listen," Larson said when he announced his candidacy for the chairmanship. "I intend to lead the caucus with a bottom-up focus on member services, policy and strategy."
The Issues
A member of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate, pro-business Democrats, Larson is a centrist but voted with the Democratic Party 98.6 percent of the time in the 110th Congress.
On foreign policy, Larson opposes the Bush doctrine of pre-emption and was a strong foe of the Iraq war from the beginning. After the war began, Larson introduced legislation to reimburse families who had purchased body armor for soldiers, and he sponsored a 2007 bill that would have repealed the 2002 vote that gave the President the authority to wage war in Iraq. He also voted against funding that was not tied to a timeline for pulling troops out of Iraq and voted against the President’s requested troop surge.
Health Care
In the Connecticut state Senate, Larson sponsored one of the nation’s first family medical leave laws, a bill that became the basis for legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate by his home state colleague, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). Once he got to Congress, he fought to defend Social Security and Medicare and extend health insurance. He avidly opposed any attempt to privatize Social Security. Larson also introduced legislation to allow the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices for Medicare recipients, and he proposed a measure to provide grants to cities for mental health services and violence prevention.
Economy
Larson was torn on the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in October 2008. He worked to get support for the bill on both sides of the aisle, and was openly angry that more Republicans didn’t support a bill advocated by a Republican President and supported by the Republican nominee. The moderate put on his partisan face, blaming Republicans for the crisis.
"Now, Republicans have handicapped our oversight functions and left our economy in shambles. The rescues of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Bear Stearns underscore a policy where executives get bailed out and the people get the bill,” he said.
Energy
In June 2008, Larson introduced legislation that would ban speculators from buying oil on the futures market, something he said would help lower soaring gasoline prices. He is a supporter of fuel cells, a source of alternative energy that is already an established industry in his home state of Connecticut. He is a co-founder and leader of the House Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Coalition. In 2001, Larson worked with Dodd on the Energy Independence Act of 2001, which would have invested $1 billion into fuel cell technology and requested a plan to ensure the U.S. was energy self-sufficient by 2011. The bill never became a law, but Larson has continued to push for independence from foreign oil. “Energy affects a number of critical policy areas, including the environment, the economy, and our foreign policy. We must aggressively seek to end our dependence on foreign oil and I will work with my colleagues to continue to build a coalition to advance this crucial goal," Larson said in 2004. He has been a member of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming since March 2007.
The Network
Larson was an early backer of Sen.
Barack Obama (D-Ill.) in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. Reps.
John P. Murtha (D-Pa.),
Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Mike Capuano (D-Mass.) helped run his campaign for Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus.
