United States Congressman Richard Andrew Gephardt (born 1941) has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1977 and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1988. His protectionist campaign theme failed to win him the nomination. In 1989 he became Democratic majority leader in the House.

Richard A. Gephardt, first elected to Congress in 1976 from Missouri's Third Congressional District, epitomized the new breed of Democratic politicians which emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. These politicians, often labeled Atari Democrats, sought to wed the traditional party concern for social issues with new technology and fiscal conservatism. Gephardt's record reflects this new political pragmatism, which borrows from both liberal and conservative beliefs. The south St. Louis congressman endorsed constitutional amendments to ban abortion and school bussing; he supported tuition credits for parents of children in private schools, and school prayer; and he opposed gun control legislation.Yet he also...