Harry Reid Fast Facts

Here is a look at the life of Harry Reid, former Senate majority leader and retired US senator from Nevada.

Personal

Birth date: December 2, 1939

Death date: December 28, 2021

Birth place: Searchlight, Nevada

Birth name: Harry Mason Reid

Father: Harry Reid Sr., miner

Mother: Inez (Jaynes) Reid

Marriage: Landra (Gould) Reid (1959-December 28, 2021, his death)

Children: Key, 1974; Josh, 1971; Leif, 1968; Rory, 1962; Lana, 1961

Education: Utah State University, B.S., 1961; George Washington School of Law, J.D., 1964

Religion: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Other Facts

He was a middleweight amateur boxer.

Reid and his wife both converted to the LDS church in college. He had been raised nonreligious and his wife was raised Jewish.

Timeline

1961-1964 - US Capitol police officer (while in law school).

1964-1966 - City Attorney for Henderson, Nevada.

1969-1970 - Member of the Nevada State Assembly.

1970-1974 - Wins election as the youngest lieutenant governor in Nevada history, at age 30.

1974 - Resigns as lieutenant governor to run for the US Senate, but loses to Paul Laxalt.

1977-1981 - Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.

January 1983-January 1987 - US Representative from Nevada’s 1st District.

November 4, 1986 - Wins election to the US Senate.

November 3, 1992 - Wins a second term in the Senate.

November 3, 1998 - Reelected to the Senate.

January 1999-January 2005 - Democratic Party Whip in the Senate.

November 2, 2004 - Reelected to the Senate.

2005-2007 - Senate Minority Leader.

2007-2015 - Serves as the Senate majority leader.

January 9, 2010 - In the book, “Game Change,” a quote from Reid about Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election stirs racial controversy for which Reid apologizes.

March 26, 2010 - Reid, for the second time, votes incorrectly for the health care reconciliation bill. He is in support of the bill but when he was asked to place his vote, he accidentally yells “no.”

November 2, 2010 - Is reelected to the Senate.

January 2015-January 2017 - Senate Minority Leader.

January 1, 2015 - Breaks several ribs and bones in his face when a piece of exercise equipment he is using breaks, causing him to fall.

March 27, 2015 - Announces he will not seek reelection.

October 6, 2015 - Reid files a lawsuit in a Nevada court against Thera-Band’s parent company, the Hygenic Corp, along with Hygenic Intangible Property Holding Co. and Performance Health LLC. Reid claims that Thera-Band’s exercise equipment malfunctioned, causing him serious injuries. The jury rejects Reid’s claims in April 2019.

December 8, 2016 - Reid delivers his final speech as Senate minority leader and US senator from Nevada.

April 10, 2017 - Announced as UNLV Boyd School of Law’s first distinguished fellow in law and policy.

May 14, 2018 - Undergoes surgery at Johns Hopkins Cancer Center for pancreatic cancer. According to a statement from Reid’s family: “His doctors caught the problem early during a routine screening and his surgeons are confident that the surgery was a success and that the prognosis for his recovery is good. He will undergo chemotherapy as the next step in his treatment.”

February 2019 - In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Reid says his pancreatic cancer is in remission.

April 12, 2019 - Reid calls for an end to the legislative filibuster in a New York Times opinion piece, asserting that removing the procedure would help end the “era of obstruction and inaction” in the Senate.

February 16, 2021 - The Clark County Board of Commissioners votes in favor of renaming McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas after Reid. In June 2021, the FAA approves the name change and lists the new airport name – Harry Reid International Airport – on flight databases.

December 28, 2021 - Passes away at the age of 82.

Former US Sen. Harry Reid sits inside his office in Las Vegas in July 2019.

Reid was born December 2, 1939, in Searchlight, Nevada, a small town about 60 miles south of Las Vegas. "My humble beginnings," he wrote in this picture he posted to Instagram in 2016. Reid's father, Harry Reid Sr., was a miner.

Reid graduated from Utah State University and went on to study law at George Washington University in Washington, DC. "College wasn't cheap when I was in school. But it's become completely unaffordable now," he wrote on this 2014 Instagram post.

In his younger days, Reid was also a middleweight amateur boxer.

Reid, seen here in 1992, was first elected to the US Senate in 1987. Before that, he served a couple of terms in the US House, representing Nevada's 1st District.

Reid leans on a stack of campaign finance reform documents during a Capitol Hill news conference in 1996.

Reid, holding a land-mine detection device, listens as scientist Gregory Pekarsky explains how it works during a demonstration in Mercury, Nevada, in 1998.

President Bill Clinton, right, discusses nuclear waste management with US Sens. Richard Bryan, Max Baucus and Reid while aboard Air Force One in 1999.

Reid stands next to US Sen. Patrick Leahy as he takes a photo of President George W. Bush signing an anti-terrorism bill in 2001. It was six weeks after the September 11 attacks.

Reid's wife, Landra, helps arrange his new Capitol office in 2005. The two married in 1959.

Reid and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers meet members of the media in 2005. Miers was nominated by President Bush to replace Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor's seat eventually went to Samuel Alito instead.

Reid addresses the Democratic National Committee during its annual winter meeting in 2007.

Reid talks at his desk in the Capitol in 2008.

Reid arrives on Capitol Hill in 2009.

Reid greets US Rep. John Lewis at a campaign barbecue in Las Vegas in 2010.

Reid kisses his wife, Landra, after winning re-election in 2010.

Reid speaks to members of the press during a news briefing in 2011.

Reid walks over to the media after voting on a bill to raise the debt ceiling in 2011.

Reid steps out of a weekly Democratic policy luncheon to talk on the phone in 2011.

Reid rubs his eyes during the counting of Electoral College votes in 2013.

Reid, far left, and other lawmakers from both parties surround President Barack Obama as he signs a proclamation commemorating his inauguration in 2013.

Reid, center, shares a laugh with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, left, and Vice President Joe Biden in 2013. They were attending the dedication ceremony for a new Frederick Douglass statue at the Capitol Visitor Center.

Reid walks through the Capitol building during the government shutdown in 2013.

Reid arrives for a 2013 news conference after the US Senate passed the "nuclear option," a controversial rules change that ended the ability of minority Republicans to continue using filibusters to block some of President Barack Obama's judicial and executive nominations. Majority Democrats said it was needed to end unprecedented obstruction by minority Republicans. Republicans said it was a power grab.

Reid speaks to the media in 2014.

Reid's eye is bandaged while talking to reporters in 2015. Reid broke several ribs and bones in his face when a piece of exercise equipment he was using broke, causing him to fall.

Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi arrive for a Capitol news conference in 2015.

Reid and US Sen. Mitch McConnell sit across from each other inside the House chamber in 2015. Reid was minority leader at the time, and McConnell was majority leader.

Reid talks to the media after a weekly policy luncheon in 2015.

Reid holds up Obama's hand after the President delivered a keynote address at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas in 2015.

Reid joins other Senate Democrats in front of the Supreme Court in 2016 as they demanded that Senate Republicans hold confirmation hearings for President Obama's new Supreme Court nominee. GOP leaders in the Senate said they would not hold a confirmation hearing after Obama said he would name someone to replace Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, who died earlier that month while on a hunting trip in Texas.

Reid and his wife, Landra, walk off stage after Reid spoke at the Democratic National Convention in 2016. Reid retired the next year.

Reid acknowledges the audience during a Nevada Democrats event in Las Vegas in 2019. A year earlier, he underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer.

In pictures: Former US Sen. Harry Reid

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