Rep. Harold Ford (D) Elected 1996, 4th term
Born:	May 11, 1970, Memphis
Home:	Memphis
Education:	U. of PA, B.A. 1992, U. of MI, J.D. 1996
Religion:	Baptist
Marital Status:	single
Professional Career:	Staff Aide, U.S. Senate Budget Cmte., 1992; Spec. Asst., Clinton/Gore Transition Team, 1992; Spec. Asst., DNC Chairs Ron Brown & Alexis Herman, 1993; Spec. Asst., U.S. Dept. of Commerce, 1993.
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Memphis, the largest city in Tennessee, is in the state's far southwestern corner, 500 miles from the Appalachian border with Virginia but only 20 miles from Mississippi's cotton fields and riverboat casinos. Metropolitan Memphis has one of the highest percentages of blacks in the country--evidence of the city's economic heritage as a capital of the Cotton Kingdom. Big Mississippi planters used to come north to sell their crop in the courtyard of the Peabody Hotel where the ducks march each day, then make financial arrangements for the next growing season.

Such facts have shaped the city's most celebrated tradition, the blues--a musical form worlds apart from Nashville's country music, which emerged from mountainous, mainly white Middle and East Tennessee. The Memphis sound originated from the self-taught musical stylings of poor, rural blacks in the Mississippi Delta. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, the most talented black musicians migrated north to Memphis and congregated downtown on Beale Street. The blues sound was later adapted by Elvis Presley, a poor white from rural Mississippi, in pivotal sessions in July 1954 at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis--the birth of rock 'n' roll, and the beginnings of an Elvis cult that long outlived the man. In the early 1960s Memphis once again became the crucible of a new sound, soul music, which emerged as a counterpoint to rock, its increasingly white-dominated cousin. For some years Memphis tried to live down this musical heritage; much of Beale Street was razed and set on a misguided path toward urban renewal. But more recently, the city has come to recognize its history as an asset. Graceland, Presley's garishly decorated mansion, attracts hordes of musical pilgrims from all over the world, and a Museum of American Soul Music opened in 2003 on the site of the Stax studio, demolished in 1989, where Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers and Sam & Dave once made their records.

Music is not the city's only asset. Geographically central in the U.S., and with some of its workers crossing over from Arkansas as well as Mississippi, Memphis is the home of the first supermarket chain (the Piggly Wiggly, founded in 1916; its symbol, Mr. Pig, has slimmed down) and the first Holiday Inn. Home of the world's busiest cargo airport, Memphis calls itself "America's distribution center": by far its biggest employer is FedEx, which ships its domestic packages in and out of Memphis Airport every night. Despite such enterprises, racial discord has scarred the political life of Memphis. It is the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968; the site of the murder, the Lorraine Motel, was converted into a civil rights museum. Even today, the resurgent Beale Street is one of the few racially integrated spaces in the city, a division that holds equally true in voting. Blacks vote almost unanimously Democratic; whites vote Republican by percentages almost as high. For the first time, blacks now outnumber whites in Shelby County; many have moved into the middle class, although Memphis continues to have the highest poverty rate in Tennessee.

The 9th Congressional District consists of most of the city of Memphis, some of its suburban fringe and about 30 precincts in east Shelby County. Redistricting dropped the black percentage in the district from 66% to 60%, and the Bush 2000 percentage increased from 32% to 36%, though it was still by far his poorest performance in Tennessee.

The congressman from the 9th District is Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat elected in 1996 at age 26; his father, Harold Ford Sr., had been elected in 1974 at 29 and represented the 9th for 22 years. Harold Ford Jr. grew up in Memphis until 1979, when the family moved to Washington. He graduated from the elite St. Albans School, a classmate of Jesse Jackson's son Yusef, and then graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. He worked on the Clinton transition team and as a special assistant in the Economic Development Administration (and thus technically worked for Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, whom he has praised as a "profound influence"). In 1993 he went off to the University of Michigan law school.

The Fords are a large family--Harold Ford Sr. has 11 siblings and Harold Ford Jr. has 75 first cousins--from a humble background. Ford Sr. grew up in a house with no plumbing, but the family built a successful funeral home business. Harold Ford Sr. was elected to the state legislature in 1970, and there has been a Ford on the Memphis Council since 1971; other Fords have served on the county commission and in the state Senate. In 1996, Ford Sr. became a lobbyist after retiring from Congress in favor of his son, who had cut an ad for him at age 4, calling for "lower cookie prices." Ford won the primary 60%-34%. In the general, "Jr."--as his campaign buttons read--won 61%-37%, slightly better than the 58% his father had won during his last three general elections.

In the House, Harold Ford Jr. has been notably more moderate on issues than his father and most members of the Black Caucus, although he has the most liberal voting record in the Tennessee delegation. He says that he talks regularly with his father, but that they often disagree on issues. A member of the New Democrat Coalition, he voted against needle exchanges, for prayer in school and anti-flag burning constitutional amendments, for the balanced budget amendment, the capital gains tax cut, repeal of the estate tax, PNTR with China, aid to tobacco farmers, and the use of force in Iraq. He has sided with conservatives on national education testing and trade promotion authority, but he has taken liberal stands on affirmative action and against cutting tax rates.

At home in Memphis, Ford's appeal has crossed racial lines. He was reelected with 79% in 1998 and has been unopposed by a major party candidate since then. In the summer of 1999 he crisscrossed Tennessee testing the ground for a run against Republican Senator Bill Frist. In sharp partisan terms he criticized Frist for voting on health care issues while owning large amounts of Columbia/ HCA stock and for opposing the Democrats' HMO regulation bill. He promised he would decide whether to run by Labor Day, but the deadline passed and, while campaigning less, he did not announce he was not running until February 2000; some Democrats groused that he had left the party without a serious candidate. But in his announcement he left little doubt about his future intentions: "I absolutely look forward to serving the entire state of Tennessee some day." In March 2002, when Senator Fred Thompson announced just weeks before the filing deadline that he would not run for reelection, Ford resumed his exploratory tour. In Knoxville he told National Rifle Association members that the debate over guns had become too polarized and that he would join their organization. Asked whether his race would cost him votes, he said, "I have confidence that the better angels will prevail. I don't believe race will play as pernicious a role as some suggest. If it does, obviously I won't have a chance." When it became clear that most of the party establishment was backing Congressman Bob Clement, Ford said he would not run. The key year for Ford may be 2006, since Bill Frist has long said he would only serve 12 years. Though Tennessee has been trending Republican, Ford's moderate record and his appeal across racial boundaries could make him a strong candidate.

After the 2002 election, Ford shook up the Democratic Caucus for a few days when he challenged Nancy Pelosi for minority leader. Pledging a "clean break" in the party's strategy, he made a flood of media appearances in the six days before the Caucus vote. He said Pelosi was too far to the left. On November 14, Pelosi won 177-29. Afterwards Ford said he planned to meet often with Washington think tanks, and to take overseas trips to learn about national security and foreign policy.

His temporary setbacks have not quelled Ford's ambitions, or clouded his prospects for future higher office. In 2001, People magazine listed him among the "50 most beautiful people in the world." It is possible to imagine this still very young-looking man as some day the first black president of the United States. That thought certainly has occurred to him. In the meantime, he obviously can win reelection to the House.

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DC Office
325 CHOB 20515, 202-225-3265; Fax: 202-225-5663; Web site: www.house.gov/ford

State Offices
Memphis, 901-544-4131.

Committees

• Budget (11th of 19 D).
• Financial Services (18th of 32 D): Capital Markets, Insurance & Government Sponsored Enterprises; Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	CON	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2002	70	60	78	50	43	75	24	63	24	12	33
2001	85	--	100	86	--	--	18	55	8	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2001 LIB	--	2001 CONS		2002 LIB	--	2002 CONS
Economic	58%	--	43%		61%	--	38%
Social	70%	--	30%		65%	--	35%
Foreign	70%	--	28%		64%	--	35%
For National Journal's complete 2002 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 107th Congress (More Info)
1. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 2. Limit Patients' Bill of Rights N 3. Campaign Finance Reform Y 4. Ban ANWR Development Y 5. Faith-Based Charities N 6. Bar Gays in the Boy Scouts N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Arm Commercial Pilots Y  9. Trade Promotion Authority N 10. Bar Funds for Intl. Court N 11. Authorize Force in Iraq Y 12. Deny Home. Sec. Dept. Union N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	Harold Ford (D)	120,904	84%	$863,754
	Tony Rush (I)	23,208	16%
2002 primary	Harold Ford (D)	unopposed
2000 general	Harold Ford (D)	unopposed
Prior winning percentages: 1998 (79%); 1996 (61%)

2000 presidential
	Gore (D)	147,898	63%
	Bush (R)	83,531	36%
	Other	2,758	1%
For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Ninth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D +14
• District Size: 340 square miles
• Population in 2000: 632,143; 99.6% urban; 0.4% rural
• Median Household Income: $33,806; 19.4% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 24.0% blue collar; 60.4% white collar; 15.6% gray collar; 11.2% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 34.9% White, 59.5% Black, 1.5% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 0.9% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 3.0% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 4.9% English, 4.7% Irish, 4.5% USA
• Click here for statewide demographic data.