Harry Reid Biography Quotes 14 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Harry Mason Reid was born on December 2, 1939, in the mining town of Searchlight, Nevada, and grew up in a home without indoor plumbing or a telephone. His father worked as a hard-rock miner and struggled with alcoholism, and his mother took in laundry, including for workers at a nearby brothel, to keep the family afloat. Because Searchlight had no high school, Reid hitchhiked more than 40 miles to attend Basic High School in Henderson. There he met a formative mentor, Mike OCallaghan, a tough, civic-minded teacher and boxing coach who would later become Nevadas governor and remain a guiding influence throughout Reids life. Reid attended Utah State University and then earned a law degree from George Washington University, financing his studies in Washington by working nights as a U.S. Capitol Police officer. He married Landra Gould in 1959, beginning a long partnership that anchored his public life; together they raised five children, including Rory Reid.

Early Political Career in Nevada
Reid returned to Nevada as a young lawyer and entered public life with his election to the Nevada Assembly in 1968. In 1970 he won statewide office as lieutenant governor, serving from 1971 to 1975 alongside Governor Mike OCallaghan. In 1974 Reid ran for the U.S. Senate and lost narrowly to Paul Laxalt, a defining early setback that sharpened his political resilience. He went on to chair the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1977 to 1981, a period marked by confrontations with organized crime figures as the state sought to clean up its chief industry. Reid received threats, an explosive device was discovered under his car, and he famously clashed on camera with casino operator Frank Rosenthal. The experience etched his reputation in Nevada as a determined, often blunt, regulator who would not be intimidated.

U.S. House and the Road to the Senate
Reid won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1982, representing the rapidly growing Las Vegas area. Four years later, with Paul Laxalt retiring, he captured a U.S. Senate seat in 1986. He would be reelected four times, often in hard-fought races that reflected Nevadas competitive politics. His 1998 campaign against Republican John Ensign ended with Reid ahead by only a few hundred votes, a margin that reinforced his belief in meticulous organization. As Nevada grew, he cultivated relationships with labor, notably the Culinary Workers Union, and helped build a durable statewide operation that later became known as the Reid machine.

Leadership in the Senate
Reid rose through the Democratic leadership, serving as party whip beginning in 1999 and becoming Senate Democratic Leader in 2005 after Tom Daschle lost reelection. When Democrats won control in 2006, he became Majority Leader, a post he held from 2007 to 2015 before returning to Minority Leader through his retirement in early 2017. In these roles he worked closely with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, during the Obama years, with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Across the aisle, his chief counterpart was Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, with whom he sparred constantly but also struck consequential agreements during fiscal showdowns.

As Majority Leader, Reid steered major legislation through the Senate: the 2009 economic stimulus in response to the Great Recession, the Dodd-Frank financial reform law of 2010, and the Affordable Care Act, which he guided past filibusters and intraparty divisions to final passage in 2010. He helped enact the 2008 financial rescue during the final months of the George W. Bush administration, and in 2013 he managed Senate passage of a bipartisan comprehensive immigration bill. Frustrated by persistent obstruction on executive and lower-court nominees, he led the 2013 change to Senate rules known as the nuclear option, ending the filibuster for most nominations and reshaping the judicial confirmation process.

Nevada Priorities
Reid used his position to focus national attention on issues central to Nevada. He was the fiercest opponent of the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository, repeatedly blocking efforts to advance the project. He championed public lands and conservation, pressing for protections that culminated during the Obama administration in new national monument designations, including the Basin and Range National Monument. He promoted renewable energy development across Nevadas deserts and worked closely with the states congressional delegation, including Republicans such as John Ensign and later Dean Heller, to secure infrastructure and federal investment for the fast-growing state.

Political Organization and Mentorship
Reid proved as formidable a party builder as a floor leader. In Nevada he nurtured an organization that relied on painstaking voter registration, grassroots outreach, and alliances with unions, especially the Culinary Workers Union. He encouraged rising Democrats to seek office, most notably Catherine Cortez Masto, whom he backed as his successor in 2016 and who became the first Latina elected to the U.S. Senate. He also supported Jacky Rosen, who rose from the House to the Senate, and cultivated relationships with local and state leaders. Within the national party he helped shape strategy and personnel; Chuck Schumer, a close ally in leadership, succeeded Reid as Democratic Leader. Closer to home, his son Rory Reid served as chair of the Clark County Commission and ran for governor in 2010, reflecting the familys deep roots in Nevada public life.

Style and Beliefs
Soft-spoken in public but sharp in private, Reid favored relentless discipline over soaring rhetoric. He could be caustic with opponents, yet he often kept lines open for deals, particularly with Mitch McConnell during high-stakes budget and debt negotiations. A practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he balanced his faith with a Democratic policy agenda, citing a moral imperative in battles over health care and social programs. He was also known for encouraging federal research into unexplained aerial phenomena, directing funding that helped launch a Defense Department effort; in Nevada he maintained a long association with aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow.

Later Years and Death
In early 2015 Reid suffered a severe eye and facial injury in an exercise accident, a personal setback that accelerated his decision not to seek reelection in 2016. He left the Senate in January 2017 after three decades of service. The Democratic caucus passed to Chuck Schumer, while in Nevada his allies helped elect Catherine Cortez Masto to his former seat. In 2018 Reid disclosed that he had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and underwent treatment. As he battled the disease, he remained an influential voice in Nevada and national politics. In 2021, Las Vegass primary airport was renamed Harry Reid International Airport, a symbolic hometown honor. Reid died on December 28, 2021, in Nevada, surrounded by family, prompting tributes from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, and many of the senators he had mentored or led.

Legacy
Harry Reid left a distinctive imprint on both Nevada and the Senate. His life traced a trajectory from a hardscrabble desert town to the pinnacle of congressional power, guided by the grit he learned from Mike OCallaghan, sustained by the partnership of his wife Landra, and shaped by decades of legislative combat. He will be remembered for the Affordable Care Act, for the strategic decision that transformed the Senates approach to nominations, and for burying Yucca Mountain as a nuclear waste site. Just as lasting was his work building a durable Democratic coalition in a once-reliably red state, elevating new leaders such as Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen. To admirers and adversaries alike, he was a master tactician: terse, unflinching, and often decisive at the moments when the Senate most needed a dealmaker who knew how to count votes and close.

Our collection contains 14 quotes who is written by Harry, under the main topics: Ethics & Morality - Justice - Learning - Overcoming Obstacles - Freedom.