Joe Lieberman, former senator and VP candidate, has died

Joe Lieberman, a longtime U.S. senator from Connecticut known for his independent streak, died Tuesday afternoon due to complications from a fall. He was 82 years old. A statement from his family said that his wife, Hadassah, and loved ones were with him in New York City.

“Senator Lieberman’s love of God, his family, and America endured throughout his life of service in the public interest,” the statement said.

How did he get his start in politics? In 1967, he was elected as a Democrat to the Connecticut state Senate at the age of 25. He served for 10 years before winning election as the state’s attorney general. He won a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1988, unseating an incumbent Republican, and served there for 24 years.

What is Lieberman’s legacy in Washington? Lieberman was known as a foreign policy hawk. After 9/11, he helped write the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security. Although he voted for Democratic priorities related to environmentalism and abortion, he often sided with Republicans on foreign policy and defense issues.

Lieberman observed the Jewish Sabbath, called Shabbat, and other traditions, such as eating only kosher food. He wrote a book in 2011 about the virtues of Sabbath rest, and the only recorded time he broke Shabbat rules as a senator was to vote on a Saturday in 2009 to break a filibuster.

In 2000, he ran as vice president on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in one of the closest presidential elections in history. He was the first Jewish American nominated on a major party presidential ticket. Lieberman launched his own presidential bid in 2003. He committed to a civil form of campaigning, saying, “I will not hesitate to tell my friends when I think they’re wrong and to tell my opponents when I think they’re right.”

His party support ran out in 2006 when Lieberman lost his Senate primary. He re-registered as an independent and won the election in a surprise landslide. He caucused with the Democrats until 2008 when he publicly backed Republican Sen. John McCain for president rather than the party nominee, Sen. Barack Obama.

Lieberman retired in 2013. He joined the American Enterprise Institute that same year, telling Politico, “There is an urgent need to rebuild a bipartisan—indeed nonpolitical—consensus for American diplomatic, economic, and military leadership in the world.” In 2014, he joined No Labels, a centrist organization seeking to nominate a third-party candidate in the presidential election.

How is he being memorialized? “His unexpected passing is a profound loss for all of us,” the No Labels organization said in a statement. “He was a man of uncommon integrity who did the right things for the right reasons. As American politics became progressively coarser and angrier, Senator Lieberman was unfailingly civil and decent to political allies and opponents alike.”

Former President George W. Bush posted his condolences on X early Wednesday evening, saying, “Joe was as fine an American as they come and one of the most decent people I met during my time in Washington. As a Democrat, Joe wasn’t afraid to engage with senators from across the aisle and worked hard to earn votes from outside his party.”

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Lieberman’s passing shocked his home state.

“In an era of political carbon copies, Joe Lieberman was a singularity. One of one,” Murphy said. “He fought and won for what he believed was right and for the state he adored.”

Dig deeper: From the WORLD archives, read about Lieberman’s opposition to Obama’s healthcare plan in 2009.