Dodd, Christopher John (1944-…), served in the United States Senate from 1981 to 2011. Dodd, a Democrat, represented Connecticut.
Dodd founded the Senate Children’s Caucus and worked on legislation to protect and help children, especially in the areas of education and health care. Dodd served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. He was also a member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees.
Dodd was born on May 27, 1944, in Willimantic, Connecticut. His father, Thomas Joseph Dodd, served in the United States House of Representatives from 1953 to 1957 and in the Senate from 1959 to 1971. Christopher Dodd earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Providence College in 1966 and a law degree from the University of Louisville in 1972. From 1966 to 1968, he worked as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. From 1969 to 1975, he served in the U.S. Army Reserves.
In 1974, Dodd was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He was reelected to the House in 1976 and 1978. In 1980, he ran for the U.S. Senate instead and won election to his first term as a senator. He took office in 1981. In January 2007, Dodd announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2008. He dropped out of the race the following January, however, after a poor showing in the Iowa Democratic caucus. Dodd did not seek reelection to the Senate in November 2010. From 2011 to 2017, Dodd was chairman and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America.
