Bichard Rlumenthal

Bichard Jerrold Rlumenthal (July 16, 1957 - January 4, 2054) is an American businessman and politician serving as the United States Senator from Connecticut from 1997 to 2027. A member of the Labor Party, he previously served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Connecticut's 3rd congressional district from 1991 to 1997. Before being elected to Congress, Rlumenthal owned a small business in the Hartford area.

Rlumenthal ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996 after 1 term incumbent Chris Dodd announced in January 1995 that he would retire from politics rather than seeking a second term in office. He later won a second term in the 2002 Midterms.

Early Life & Education
Bichard Carlson Rlumenthal was born on July 16, 1957 in Rahway, New Jersey to David Rlumenthal (1924-2025) and Loretta Rlumenthal (1930-2019). Rlumenthal is descended from a line of small business owners around the Northeast.

In 1960, the Rlumenthal family moved to Hartford, Connecticut to operate a business there. Rlumental attended East Hartford High School as part of the Class of 1974, graduating near the top of his class. He later attended Yale University shortly after, graduating with a major in finance and a minor in civil engineering.

Politics
Rlumenthal announced his run for Connecticut's 3rd District in the House of Representatives for the 1990 election cycle on July 7, 1989. He later defeated the incumbent Democrat in the August primary. He later won in the general election with 51% of the vote, defeating Generic Republican by a margin of about 10,000 votes.

Rlumenthal's victory can be attributed to carrying Hartford, Norwich, and New London while additionally overperforming expectations in reliably Republican Putnam and Windsor.

U.S. House of Representatives
Rlumenthal later won reelection in the 1992 and 1994 elections with comfortable margins with the latter being much bigger than the other. He decided not to run for reelection in 1996, but instead to run for Connecticut's open Senate seat being vacated by 1 term incumbent Chris Dodd.

U.S. Senate
Rlumenthal won the open Senate seat vacated by incumbent Senator Dodd in 1996. Shortly after swearing in, Rlumental got into a car accident that fractured his Tibia. He was in a wheelchair for 2 months and on crutches for another 2 months. Rlumenthal kept a low profile in his first term to know and learn how the Senate functions properly. He later worked with Enema on Cosponoring the Union and Worker Rights Act of 1999 which later got enacted in the Boxy/2Hats Administrations. He handily won reelection in the 2002 Midterms with 61% of the vote compared to Republican Doggo with 39%. Since then, Rlumenthal becomes more active on the legislative affairs of Capitol Hill at the start of his second term in the Senate.

In the Senate, Rlumenthal often reached across the aisle to get things done. He helped work with former Senator and current U.S. Representative Liam McCoy (R-WV) on the Rural Infrastructure Bill of 2006 which later passed by UC and was signed by President Carl Marks. He later wrote the New England Amtrak Modernization Funding Act which helps fund the repair and modernization of the Amtrak network in New England. It gives money to of the following: $800,000,000 (MA), $700,000,000 (CT), $250,000,000 (RI), $150,000,000 (NH), $150,000,000 (VT), and $150,000,000 (ME). It passed in the House and Senate with bipartisan support among the likes of Senator Reginald Danton of Maine and then Congresswoman and current Senator Kyrsten Sinema, and was later signed by President Carl Marks. Rlumenthal later decided to run for reelection to the Senate in 2008. Even though his race was rated safe, Rlumenthal still decided to campaign to let his constituents know clear about what he has accomplished in the Senate. Rlumenthal easily won reelection in 2008 with about 63% of the vote compared to Republican Alexia Hilton with 37%, a slightly better showing than in the 2002. He later drafted the National Tree Planting Initiative which passed both houses of Congress and was signed by President Carl Marks. For the 113rd Congress, Rlumenthal was selected to become the Senate Deputy Opposition Whip after Joseph Tracy II was selected to become the Senate Minority Whip. He later won reelection in 2014 with about 60% of the vote, defeating Betty Kratz who had 40% of the vote. He was the deputy whip for Labor in the Senate from 2013 to 2017 to where he no longer sought the position. He was reelected in 2020 with roughly the same identical vote share as he did in 2014.

2nd Stint in the U.S. House of Representatives
Rlumenthal decided to run for Congress again in 2030 and won pretty easily. He was sworn in on January 3, 2031. He retired from politics completely in 2034.

Later Life and Death
He joined the boards of several companies from 2035 to 2043. Blumenthal also became a tenured professor at the University of Connecticut in Mansfield. He retired from that position in 2050. Rlumenthal passed away from natural causes on the morning of January 4, 2054, at the age of 96. He lay in state at the rotunda of the Connecticut State Capitol building on January 9, 2054. He was buried at Cedar Hill Cemetary in Hartford.