Patrick Leahy, American lawyer and politician
Patrick Joseph Leahy (; born March 31, 1940) is an American politician and attorney who is the senior United States senator from Vermont and serves as the president pro tempore of the United States Senate. Leahy was first elected to the Senate in 1974, and previously served as president pro tempore from 2012 to 2015. He is the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
A member of the Democratic Party, Leahy is now in his eighth term of office. He is the most senior member of Congress, and the last of the Senate's "Watergate Babies"—Democrats first elected to Congress in the wave election of 1974 that followed President Richard Nixon's resignation over the Watergate scandal. As of 2022, Leahy is one of two members of Congress to have served during Gerald Ford's presidency, and one of three to have served during Jimmy Carter's.The dean of his state's congressional delegation, Leahy is Vermont's longest-serving U.S. senator, as well as the only Democrat ever elected to the U.S. Senate from Vermont. He is the former chairman of the Agriculture and Judiciary committees. He served as the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee from 2017 to 2021, and became chairman in 2021. In 2001, Leahy was one of the two U.S. senators targeted by the anthrax attacks that killed five people. He was the presiding officer at Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, becoming the first senator to preside over a former president's impeachment trial.On November 15, 2021, Leahy announced that he would not seek reelection in 2022.