Howard Dean Bio
Howard Brush Dean III (born November 17, 1948) is an American physician, author, consultant and retired politician. He served as the 79th governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003, leading the state through five consecutive two-year terms and becoming its longest-serving chief executive. He later chaired the Democratic National Committee from 2005 to 2009, where he introduced the fifty-state strategy that helped Democrats win back the House and Senate in 2006 and expand their majorities in 2008. Dean was an unsuccessful candidate for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, but he pioneered Internet-based grassroots fundraising that reshaped modern campaigning.
Early Life and Background
Howard Brush Dean III was born on November 17, 1948, in East Hampton, New York. He is the son of Andrée Belden (née Maitland), an art appraiser, and Howard Brush Dean Jr., an executive in the financial industry who worked at the stock brokerage firm Dean Witter. The family lived on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in a three-bedroom apartment along Park Avenue and spent considerable time at a house they built on Hook Pond in East Hampton in the mid-1950s. Dean is the eldest of four brothers, including Jim Dean, who later chaired Democracy for America, and Charles Dean, who was captured and executed by the Pathet Lao in Southeast Asia in 1974.
As a youth, Dean attended the Browning School in Manhattan until age 13, then transferred to St. George’s School, a preparatory school in Middletown, Rhode Island. In September 1966, he won an English Speaking Union scholarship and spent one school year at Felsted School in the United Kingdom. After graduating from Yale University in 1971 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, he briefly tried a career as a stockbroker before deciding on medicine. He completed pre-medical classes at Columbia University and earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1978.
Path to US Politics
Dean began a medical residency at the University of Vermont and, in 1981, founded a family medical practice in Shelburne, Vermont, with his wife, fellow physician Judith Steinberg. In 1980, he led a successful grassroots campaign to stop a condominium development on Lake Champlain and replace it with a bicycle trail, an effort that helped launch his political career. That same year, he volunteered for Jimmy Carter’s re-election bid and served as a Carter delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Dean was elected chairman of the Chittenden County Democratic Committee in 1981, winning a seat in the Vermont House of Representatives in 1982. He was reelected in 1984 and became assistant minority leader, then won election as lieutenant governor in 1986. He held the lieutenant governorship through successive reelections in 1988 and 1990. These early offices were part-time roles, allowing him to continue practicing medicine alongside his wife until he became governor.
Howard Dean Career
Early Career (1982–1991)
Howard Dean’s early political career in Vermont began with his 1982 election to the Vermont House of Representatives, followed by his 1984 reelection and selection as assistant minority leader. He then won three successive elections as lieutenant governor in 1986, 1988 and 1990, balancing these duties with his ongoing medical practice. His profile as a fiscal moderate grew during this period.
On August 13, 1991, Dean was examining a patient when he learned that Governor Richard A. Snelling had died of sudden cardiac arrest. He immediately assumed the office and called it the greatest job in Vermont. The transition set the stage for his run as governor in his own right.
Governorship of Vermont Breakthrough (1991–2003)
Howard Dean was elected to five two-year terms as governor of Vermont, becoming the longest-serving governor in the state’s history. He inherited a $60 million budget deficit and an economic recession, responding with a push for balanced budgets that bucked much of his own party. During his tenure, Vermont paid off much of its public debt, balanced its budget eleven times, raised its bond rating, and lowered income taxes twice. Dean served as chairman of the National Governors Association from 1994 to 1995.
Dean made health care a signature priority, expanding the Dr. Dynasaur program that ensures near-universal coverage for children and pregnant women. Under his watch, the uninsured rate in Vermont fell from 10.8 percent in 1993 to 8.4 percent in 2000, while child abuse and teen pregnancy rates were cut roughly in half. In 2000, following the Vermont Supreme Court’s decision in Baker v. State, he signed the nation’s first civil unions legislation into law, a national first that drew both praise and political backlash.
2004 Presidential Campaign Era (2003–2004)
Howard Dean entered the 2004 presidential race as a long-shot candidate, ranked eighth by ABC News among potential contenders in May 2002. He gained grassroots attention with a March 2003 speech at the California State Democratic Convention sharply criticizing Democratic leaders who supported the Iraq War. He pioneered Internet-based fundraising built on small donations averaging under $80, raising roughly $50 million overall and leading the Democratic pack in early totals. His campaign was the first to forgo federal matching funds in November 2003, a step John Kerry later followed.
Despite leading in superdelegate commitments and earning endorsements from figures such as Al Gore, Bill Bradley, Carol Moseley Braun, Joan Jett, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner, Susan Sarandon, Paul Newman, Robin Williams and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dean finished third in the Iowa caucus. His campaign suffered after media coverage of a hoarse rallying cry at a post-caucus event, and he ultimately lost the nomination to Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. The New York Observer later credited Barack Obama’s 2008 success to the perfecting of the Internet organizing model that Dean had pioneered.
DNC Chairmanship Era (2005–2009)
Howard Dean was elected Chairman of the Democratic National Committee on February 12, 2005, after his opponents dropped out. He introduced the fifty-state strategy, committing the party to compete in every state rather than only swing states. State party chairs praised him for raising money directly for individual state parties, and DNC fundraising rose by more than 50 percent in early 2005 compared with the same period in 2003.
Democrats took back the House and Senate in the 2006 midterm elections, winning Senate seats in traditionally Republican states such as Missouri and Montana. In 2008, they expanded their majorities, with Barack Obama using the fifty-state strategy as the backbone of his successful presidential bid, including victories in Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia. Dean retired as DNC chairman in January 2009, receiving the title of chairman emeritus, and was succeeded by Tim Kaine.
Post-DNC Career and Consulting Era (2009–Present)
After leaving the DNC, Howard Dean moved into the private sector, joining the law and lobbying firm McKenna Long & Aldridge as a senior strategic advisor and independent consultant. He became an MSNBC contributor, appearing on programs such as The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell, Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show. He later worked with the global law firm Dentons as part of its public policy and regulation practice.
Dean served as a Senior Presidential Fellow at Hofstra University and as a Senior Fellow at the Yale Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. In December 2018 he joined the advisory board of Tilray, one of the world’s largest cannabis companies, and he serves on the National Democratic Institute board and the Canadian American Business Council’s Advisory Board. He briefly sought the DNC chairmanship again in 2016 before withdrawing his candidacy on December 2, 2016.
Notable Events and Milestones
Howard Dean’s signature moments include becoming the longest-serving governor in Vermont history, signing the nation’s first civil unions law, and pioneering Internet-based small-donor fundraising that reshaped presidential campaigning. As DNC chair, his fifty-state strategy is widely credited with helping Democrats reclaim Congress in 2006 and elect Barack Obama in 2008. The 2011 film The Ides of March, written by former Dean campaign staffer Beau Willimon, drew inspiration from the 2004 campaign, and a 2008 documentary titled Dean and Me also chronicled his political rise.
Howard Dean Family
Family Background and Political Lineage
Howard Dean comes from a family with deep ties to finance, the arts and public service. His father, Howard Brush Dean Jr., worked at the stock brokerage firm Dean Witter, and his mother, Andrée Belden (née Maitland), worked as an art appraiser. He is the eldest of four brothers, and his brother Jim Dean has served as chair of Democracy for America, the progressive political action committee founded by Howard Dean in 2004.
Personal Life
In 1981, Howard Dean married fellow physician Judith Steinberg, whom he met in medical school, and together they established a family medical practice in Shelburne, Vermont. The couple has two children, Anne Dean and Paul Dean, both raised with a secular education and self-identifying as Jews. The family resides in Shelburne, Vermont, where Dean has long maintained his ties to the state he once governed.