U.S. House

In 1987, Ford Sr. was indicted on charges that he took illegal loans from political backers. He was acquitted after a protracted legal battle, but retired from Congress in 1996. Ford Jr., then-26-years-old, ran to replace his father.

At the time he announced his candidacy, Ford Jr. was still in law school at the University of Michigan. He graduated a couple months later in May of 1996 and won the Democratic primary, 62 to 33 percent. Ford called the win "a victory for young people who are seeking guidance and hope and opportunity." He won the general election easily in the solid Democratic seat and never had trouble being re-elected in Tennessee's Memphis-based 9th Congressional District.

Keynote Address

It was no secret that Ford harbored grand political ambitions. In 1999, he campaigned across Tennessee, testing the waters for a run against Sen. Bill Frist's (R). Party leaders complained when he bowed out in the spring of 2000 that he had left them too little time to find a viable candidate. Two years later, Ford contemplated running for Sen. Fred Thompson's (R) seat. This time, the party chose Rep. Bob Clement (D), who lost to now-Sen. Lamar Alexander (R).

Ford's biggest political break came in 2000, when presidential candidate Al Gore asked him to be the keynote speaker at the Democratic National Convention. Gore's campaign advisers wanted Ford to give a speech that would appeal to the Democratic base, focusing on the civil-rights movement and the party's history. But the centrist Ford had a different idea. He wanted to focus on issues such as campaign finance reform and education.

Ford fought with the Gore aides right up until the minute he delivered his speech, which was a compromise, but focused more on the future than the past. "I recognize that I stand here tonight because of the brave men and women - many no older than I am today - who were willing to stand up, and in many cases sit down, to create a more perfect union," he said. "But I also stand here representing a new generation, a generation committed to those ideals and inspired by an unshakable confidence in our future."

Ford was seen as a clear rising star in his party, a likely statewide candidate and a potential national candidate. A friend described accompanying him the DNC as what it would have been like walking around with Elvis. Ford was just 30 years old and could appeal to both liberals and moderates. And People magazine described him as one of the world's 50 most beautiful people in 2001.

Leadership Battle

But as a House member, Ford often clashed with the Democratic leadership. He was young and confident and disappointed with the direction of his party.

The morning after the 2002 election, which saw the Democrats lose six House seats, Ford called for Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) to step down as minority leader. In a longshot, Ford challenged Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for the leadership position and was beaten badly. He tried to paint Pelosi as the head of the old Democratic Party, and himself as the head of the new party, but he got just 29 votes (mostly young or new members), to Pelosi's 177.

2006 Senate Race and Beyond

When Frist decided to retire in 2006, Ford jumped on the opportunity to run for the open Tennessee Senate seat. His challenger was Bob Corker (R), who was in his first term as mayor of Chattanooga. Ford didn't have any competition in the Democratic primary, so he was able to concentrate on the general election. Corker tried and failed to paint Ford as a liberal and Ford appeared poised to be the first black man popularly elected to the Senate from the South.

But in the final weeks of the campaign, Corker began focusing on Ford's personal story, describing him as a privileged Washingtonian who went to St. Alban's prep school and never had to work to become a member of Congress. At the end of October, the Republican National Committee produced an ad that featured people on the street talking about Ford. One woman, an attractive blonde, said she met him at a Playboy party, and the ad ended with her saying, "Harold, call me." Critics said the ad subliminally brought up the idea of a relationship between a white woman and a black man and was playing off people's prejudice against interracial dating. The Corker campaign criticized the ad and asked for TV stations not to air it. The ad was eventually pulled from the airways, but drew a lot of attention. Corker won by a few points. Ford said he didn't think race was a factor in the election, but he dropped a handful of points in the polls in the final weeks.

After the election, Ford moved out of the spotlight, but stayed involved in politics. Just months after his defeat, he joined Merrill Lynch as vice chairman and senior policy adviser and became chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, a moderate Democratic organization once chaired by then-Gov. Bill Clinton. He was a professor at Vanderbilt University and was a regular Democratic pundit on television throughout the 2008 election.

After Barack Obama's first two choices for Commerce Secretary - New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) and New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg (R) - fell through, Ford's name surfaced as a candidate for that job. But Obama chose Gary Locke, former Washington governor, instead.

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