Gore, Al (1948-…), was vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic nominee for president of the United States in 2000 but lost to his Republican opponent, Texas Governor George W. Bush, in an extremely close election. In the election, Gore won the popular vote, but Bush won more electoral votes and so won the presidency.
Early life.
Albert Gore, Jr., was born on March 31, 1948, in Washington, D.C. His father, Albert Gore, Sr., served in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate as a Democrat from Tennessee.
Gore graduated from Harvard University in 1969 with a bachelor’s degree in government. He opposed U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War but enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1969 and served until 1971. He spent about six months of his service as an Army journalist in Vietnam.
From 1971 to 1976, Gore was a reporter and editorial writer for The Tennessean, a Nashville paper. He also operated a small farm and worked as a real estate developer. He attended Vanderbilt University, where he studied at the Divinity School in 1971 and 1972 and in the School of Law from 1974 to 1976.
In 1970, Gore married Mary Elizabeth (Tipper) Aitcheson. The Gores had four children—Karenna, Kristin, Sarah, and Albert III.
Political career.
Gore was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1976. He won reelection in 1978, 1980, and 1982. In Congress, Gore gained a reputation as a moderate liberal. He also became known as an expert on nuclear arms control, public health, and the environment. Gore won election to the United States Senate in 1984 and was reelected in 1990.
In 1988, Gore campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination. He did not win, but he received widespread support in a number of Southern States.
In June 1992, Gore led a Senate delegation to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Earth Summit, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He is the author of Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992).
In July 1992, the Democratic National Convention nominated Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton for president. At Clinton’s request, the delegates nominated Gore for vice president. In the November election, Clinton and Gore defeated their Republican opponents, President George H. W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle.
In 1996, Clinton and Gore were reelected. Their Republican opponents were former Kansas Senator Robert Dole, the presidential candidate, and former New York Representative Jack Kemp, the vice presidential candidate.
As vice president, Gore was President Clinton’s closest adviser on most major issues. He played a leading role in foreign affairs, trade policy, environmental protection, and efforts to improve U.S. communications technology. In 1993, Gore became head of the National Performance Review (later called the National Partnership for Reinventing Government), a panel that recommended ways to increase the federal government’s efficiency and reduce its costs.
In 1999, Gore began campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination for the 2000 election. By March 2000, victories in primary elections had given him enough delegates to secure the nomination. In August, at the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, the delegates nominated Gore for president. At Gore’s request, they nominated Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut for vice president. Lieberman became the first Jewish vice presidential candidate of a major American political party. During the campaign, Gore emphasized his extensive experience in government, and he pledged to maintain the nation’s economic prosperity.
The Republicans nominated George W. Bush, governor of Texas, for president and Richard B. Cheney, a former congressman and U.S. secretary of defense, for vice president.
The election of 2000 was one of the tightest presidential contests in U.S. history. The outcome remained in doubt for weeks after the election because it was not clear which candidate had won in Florida. Because the vote was extremely close there, the state ordered a machine recount. After that recount, Bush was ahead. Also, Gore asked for manual recounts in certain counties, but Bush challenged in court the need for those recounts. Five weeks after the election, a U.S. Supreme Court decision halted the recounts. As a result, Bush won Florida’s electoral votes and the presidency, even though Gore had won the popular vote nationwide.
Later years.
After his term as vice president ended, Gore turned to college teaching. His teaching roles included that of visiting professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He later became an adviser to Google, an Internet search-engine company, and he joined the board of directors of Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.). In 2004, Gore and a group of investors bought a cable TV news channel, Newsworld International, and Gore became its chairman of the board. In 2005, the channel was relaunched as Current TV. In 2006, Gore helped form the Alliance for Climate Protection, a group that aims to raise public awareness of climate change issues. Gore narrated and appeared in the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and wrote a companion book of the same name. Both works focus on global warming (see Global warming). In 2007, the film received an Academy Award for best documentary feature. His book The Assault on Reason (2007) discusses American politics and media. That same year, Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work spreading awareness of climate change. He shared the award with the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
In 2008, the Gore-led Alliance for Climate Protection launched a $300-million advertising campaign calling for the United States to work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such emissions are thought to be a key factor in global climate change. Gore said he hoped the ads will educate the public on global warming and encourage legislators to pass tough laws to combat climate change. In the book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis (2009), Gore discusses potential solutions to global warming. In 2013, Gore sold his interest in the Current TV network. Gore’s book The Future: Six Drivers of Global Change (2013) discusses changes that governments and economic leaders can make to meet the challenges facing future generations. An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, a follow-up to Gore’s 2006 climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, was released in 2017.
See also Bush v. Gore; Clinton, Bill; United States presidential election of 2000.
