McGovern, George S

McGovern, George S(tanley)

(born July 19, 1922, Avon, S.D., U.S.) U.S. politician. After earning a doctorate in history at Northwestern University, he taught at Dakota Wesleyan University in South Dakota. Active in Democratic politics from 1948, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1957–61) and the U.S. Senate (1963–81), where he held important hearings on hunger in the U.S. He was a leading critic of the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. In 1972 he won the Democratic presidential nomination but lost the general election to Pres. Richard Nixon by a large margin. He was reelected to the Senate in 1974 but lost his seat in 1980. He returned to to teaching, lecturing, and writing and remained a prominent spokesman for liberal causes.