GORE, AL

in full Albert Arnold Gore, Jr.

born March 31, 1948, Washington, D.C., U.S.

U.S. politician.

He was the son of Albert Gore, who served in the U.S. Senate from Tennessee. After graduating from Harvard University, he briefly attended divinity school before serving in the Vietnam War as a military reporter (1969–71). He worked as a reporter for The Tennessean in Nashville (1971–76) while attending first divinity school and then law school at Vanderbilt University. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1977–85) and later the Senate (1985–93). A moderate Democrat, he was Bill Clinton 's vice presidential running mate in 1992 and served two terms (1993–2001) as vice president under Clinton. As the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, he won 500,000 more popular votes than Republican George W. Bush but narrowly lost the electoral vote (271–266).