Senator Joseph Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut, on February 24, 1942, and attended public schools there. He received his bachelor's degree from Yale College in 1964 and his law degree from Yale Law School in 1967. Senator Lieberman was elected to the Connecticut State Senate in 1970 and served there for ten years, including the last six as Majority Leader. In 1980, he returned to private legal practice for two years, and from 1983 through 1988, he served as Connecticut's 21st Attorney General. As Attorney General he took on polluters of Connecticut's environment, went after deadbeat dads by strengthening child support enforcement, and earned a strong reputation as a defender of consumers' rights.
Sen. Lieberman was first elected to the United States Senate in 1988, scoring the nation's biggest political upset that year by a margin of just 10,000 votes. Six years later, he made history by winning the biggest landslide victory ever in a Connecticut Senate race, drawing 67 percent of the vote and beating his opponent by more than 350,000 votes. In 2000, Senator Lieberman was elected by another overwhelming margin to a third term.
In 2006, Sen. Lieberman was elected to a fourth term as an Independent, because of the strength of his record and his accomplishments for the state. He won the general election by more than 100,000 votes. He remains committed to caucusing with Senate Democrats, but is identified as an Independent Democrat (ID-CT).
Senator Lieberman is Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is responsible for oversight of the Department of Homeland Security and assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the Federal Government. In addition, he is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Airland and sits on the Personnel and Seapower Subcommittees; and the Small Business Committee.
Senator Lieberman lives in Stamford and Washington with his wife Hadassah. Together they are the proud parents of four children and eleven grandchildren.