Tom Carper

Richard Thomas ( "Tom" ) Carper ( born January 23, 1947 in Beckley, West Virginia ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He represents the state of Delaware since 2001 in the U.S. Senate.

Life

Carper was born in 1947 as son of Richard Wallace and Mary Jean Carper Patton. He grew up in Danville ( Virginia). Carper graduated from Whetstone High School in Columbus (Ohio ); then he studied at the Ohio State University of Economics, where he obtained a bachelor's degree in 1968. From 1968 to 1973 Carper was an officer in the U.S. Navy. During this time he was employed in Vietnam as a soldier. After that, he lived in Delaware and graduated from the University of Delaware, which he finished in 1975 with a Master of Business Administration.

Since that time, Carper is politically active. His first post he held between 1976 and 1983 as Minister of Finance ( State Treasurer ) of Delaware; January 1983 to January 1993, he was then a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Delaware. Following his first election in November 1982, he was seven times confirmed in his mandate. Thereafter, he was elected governor of his state 71, in which he clearly prevailed with 66 percent of the vote against his Republican rivals as Gary Scott. He had held the post for a peril- re-election in 1996 of 19 January 1993 to 3 January 2001. Since January 3, 2001 Carper is a U.S. Senator for Delaware. He defeated the previous 30 years incumbent Republican William V. Roth with a vote share of 56 percent; in 2006, the re-election succeeded with 70 percent of the vote against Jan C. Ting. Six years later, he sat down with 66 percent of the vote against by Kevin L. Wade. In January 2013, he took over the chairmanship of the Committee on Homeland Security from resigned from the Senate, Joe Lieberman.

Carper was married in first marriage to Diane Beverly, who had two children from a previous marriage. The marriage ended in divorce in 1983. In 1985 he married Martha Ann Stacy, with whom he has two sons. Carper is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Wilmington.