Former Al Gore vice president

Former US Senator Joe Lieberman dies

The former US senator and first Jewish candidate for vice president, Joe Lieberman, has died in New York at the age of 82. The cause was "complications following a fall", US media quoted the politician's family as saying on Wednesday.

 Lieberman was a senator for the state of Connecticut for many years and stood alongside Democratic candidate Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election campaign. 

Gore lost by a wafer-thin margin to the Republican George W. Bush. The election ultimately had to be decided by the Supreme Court.

Foreign policy hardliner
In 2004, Lieberman made an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. In 2003, the foreign policy hardliner had fallen out with many of his party colleagues over his support for the Iraq war. At the same time, Lieberman held liberal social views, for example on the issues of gun rights and abortion.

In 2006, Lieberman lost the Democratic primary for re-entry into the Senate, but ultimately retained his seat as an independent candidate. In 2013, he initially withdrew from politics. In 2023, he returned to the political stage as one of the faces of the No Labels organization, which aims to give US citizens a third choice in presidential elections.