Most of the Democratic candidates and incumbent President George W. Bush were born in the 1940s.  Sen. Bob Graham, born in 1936, is the oldest in the 2004 field and Sen. John Edwards and Rev. Al Sharpton are the youngest.

Notes
Howard Dean: "...the proud patrician product of Park Avenue and 85th Street, the son, grandson, and great-grandson of investment bankers. the son, grandson, and great-grandson of investment bankers."
-Meryl Gordon.  "The Unlikely Rise of Howard Dean."  New York, Feb. 24, 2003.
 

Dick Gephardt: "Dick Gephardt grew up in the same working class neighborhood on the south side of St. Louis, Missouri, that he represents today in the U.S. Congress.  Gephardt's father, a milk truck driver and Teamster, taught him the value of hard work.  His mother, a secretary, taught him an appreciation for the value of community and caring about the needs and aspirations of others.  While his parents didn't finish high school, they instilled in him a lifelong desire to strive and succeed."
-Official Candidate Biography.

Attended Mason Elementary School in St. Louis.
 

Bob Graham: "Graham is the son of Ernest 'Cap' Graham, a Florida state senator, mining engineer, and dairy/cattleman, and Hilda Simmons Graham, a schoolteacher.  He is the youngest of four children."
-Official Senate Biography
 

John Kerry: "John Kerry was born on December 11, 1943 at Fitzsimmons Military Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where his father, Richard, who had volunteered to fly DC-3's in the Army Air Corps in World War II, was recovering from a bout with tuberculosis. Not long after Sen. Kerry's birth, his family returned home to Massachusetts."
-Official Candidate Biography
 

Dennis Kucinich: "Kucinich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1946.  He is the eldest of 7 children of Frank and Virginia Kucinich.  He and his family lived in twenty-one places, including a couple of cars, by the time Kucinich was 17 years old."
-Official Candidate Biography
 

Joe Lieberman: "Joe Lieberman was born in Stamford, Connecticut on February 24, 1942, and attended public schools there."
-Official Senate Biography

"I have seen America through the eyes of my parents, Henry and Marcia Lieberman.  My father lived in an orphanage when he was a child. He went on to drive a bakery truck and own a package store in Stamford, Connecticut.  He taught my sisters and me the importance of work and responsibility.  With my mother by his side, he saw me become the first person in my family to graduate from college."
-Prepared Remarks, Democratic National Convention, Los Angeles, CA  Aug. 16, 2000
 

Moseley Braun: "Her father, a law enforcement officer, was a consummate renaissance man, a musician who mastered seven instruments and spoke several languages.  Her mother was a medical technician."
-Official Candidate Biography
 

President George W. Bush: President Bush was born on July 6, 1946, in New Haven, Connecticut, and he grew up in Midland and Houston, Texas.
-Official Biography
 

Copyright © 2003  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action