Thomas Andrew Daschle is a former U.S. Senator from South Dakota and Senate Majority Leader. He is a member of the Democratic Party. He is currently a Special Policy Advisor at the law firm Alston & Bird, visiting professor at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute at Georgetown University, a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, and a Richard von Weizsäcker Distinguished Visitor at the American Academy in Berlin, Germany.
Democratic U.S. Senator from South Dakota (1987-2004).
Attended South Dakota State University and graduated with a degree in political science.
Graduated from Aberdeen Central High School in 1965.
Upon his election loss in 2004, he became the first Senate leader in over fifty years to lose his seat to a challenger (Sen. Ernst McFarland (D-AZ) had been upset by Barry Goldwater in 1952).
Before the construction of a new airport terminal in his hometown of Aberdeen, there were talks of having the airport named after Tom Daschle or keeping the original name of Saunders Field. Daschle turned down the offer, saying the airport should keep its original name. He felt it should stay Saunders Field out of his respect for Air Force Brigadier General Laverne Saunders, a World War II hero and a native of Stratford and Aberdeen, SD.
U.S. Senate majority leader (?-2004).
(November 2004) Lost Senate election to John Thune (R-SD).
We need real campaign finance reform to loosen the grip of special interests on politics. .
