Moving into the seat of Senate Majority Leader in 2007 after many years as minority leader was "the difference between playing first base for the Yankees and playing for Basic High School," Harry Reid told the Sun in a year-end interview.
Although Reid invested a lot of effort in his first year to unsuccessfully change Iraq war policy, he said "it's been a tremendously fascinating, interesting year for me."
The 68-year-old senator has spent a lifetime representing Nevada's interests. He got his start in government as Henderson's city attorney, then went to elective politics to Nevada's State Assembly in 1968.
In 1970, at age 30, he became Nevada's youngest-ever lieutenant governor. In 1977, he became chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
Reid was elected in 1982 to the first of two terms he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. And in 1986, he ran for the Senate, where he has been re-elected four times.
Reid was born in Searchlight, Nev., a small rural mining town, and grew up in a cabin, the son of a hard-rock miner. Because there was no high school in the tow, he moved to Henderson to attend Basic High School, where he met his wife, Laura.
The Reids have four grown children and 16 grandchildren.
