Hart, Gary Warren (1936-…), a Colorado Democrat, served as a United States senator from 1975 to 1987. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. Hart withdrew from the second campaign, in May 1987, after newspaper accounts of his personal life suggested marital infidelity. He reentered the race in December 1987, but he again withdrew in March 1988. From 1998 to 2001, Hart served as co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security.
Hart was born on Nov. 28, 1936, in Ottawa, Kansas. He changed his family name from Hartpence to Hart in 1961. Hart received a bachelor’s degree from Bethany Nazarene College (now Southern Nazarene University) in 1958. He graduated from Yale University Divinity School in 1962 and from Yale Law School in 1964. He then entered law practice. Hart first attracted national attention when he directed the 1972 presidential campaign of Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota.
Hart was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1974 and reelected in 1980. In the Senate, Hart supported programs to limit the development of nuclear weapons. He was the author of a proposal urging the United States and the Soviet Union to work together to prevent the use of nuclear weapons. Hart also proposed a tax system that would aid small businesses and favor companies using advanced electronics. He opposed several costly military programs and proposed federal programs to modernize factories and to retrain workers with outdated skills.
In 1988, Hart returned to the practice of law, in Denver. In 1998, he and former Senator Warren B. Rudman were appointed co-chairmen of the U.S. Commission on National Security. The commission was formed by President Bill Clinton’s administration to deal with the increasing threat of terrorism. The commission’s final report, issued in January 2001, recommended the establishment of a Cabinet-level agency for national security. The commission also called for the reorganization of the Department of Defense, the State Department, and other government agencies.
In 2001, Hart received a doctoral degree from Oxford University. He is the author of a number of books, including A New Democracy (1984) and The Fourth Power: A Grand Strategy for the United States in the 21st Century (2004).
