Senator Larry E. Craig

Larry E. Craig served as a Senator from Idaho in the United States Congress from 1981 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Larry E. Craig contributed to the legislative process during 8 terms in office.

Larry E. Craig’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the Senate, Larry E. Craig participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

Lawrence Edwin Craig (born July 20, 1945) is an American retired politician from the state of Idaho. A member of the Republican Party, Craig represented Idaho in the United States Senate from 1991 to 2009 and represented Idaho’s 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 1991. Born in Council, Idaho, Craig was raised on a ranch in Washington County. He attended the University of Idaho, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the university in 1969, and later briefly attended George Washington University before returning to Washington County in 1971 to work in his family’s ranching business. Following a brief stint in the Idaho Army National Guard, Craig ran for and won a seat in the Idaho Senate in 1974, and was re-elected in 1976 and 1978, before his successful first run for Congress to represent Idaho’s 1st congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1980. He won reelection four times before running for the U.S. Senate in 1990, defeating Ron J. Twilegar in the general election and winning reelection in 1996 and 2002. On June 11, 2007, Craig was arrested for indecent behavior in a men’s restroom at Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport; he pleaded guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct in August 2007 and paid $575 in court fines and fees. The arrest remained unknown to the public until the Washington, D.C.–based newspaper Roll Call disclosed it in an article, drawing widespread public attention as well as charges of hypocrisy against Craig, as he had been an opponent of LGBT rights in the United States. Despite stating that he was not and never had been homosexual, on September 1, 2007, Craig announced that he would resign from the Senate, effective September 30, 2007. He later reversed this decision and chose to finish the remainder of his term, although he did not seek re-election in 2008.