Campbell, Ben Nighthorse, 1933-

Variant names

Dates:

Birth 1933-04-13

Gender:

Male

Nationality: Americans, Native Americans

Language: English

Biographical notes:

Ben Nighthorse Campbell (born Benny Marshall Campbell, April 13, 1933, Auburn, California) is an American politician. He was a three-term U.S. Representative from Colorado's 3rd district, serving from 1987 to 1993 and a U.S. Senator from Colorado from 1993 until 2005. Initially a Democrat, he became a Republican in 1995. Campbell also serves as one of forty-four members of the Council of Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe.

Born Benny Campbell in Auburn, California, he attended Placer High School, dropping out in 1951 to join the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed in Korea during the Korean War as an air policeman; he left the Air Force in 1953 with the rank of Airman Second Class, as well as the Korean Service Medal and the Air Medal. While in the Air Force, Campbell obtained his GED and, following his discharge, used his G.I. Bill to attend San Jose State University, where he graduated in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education and Fine Arts. While in college, Campbell was a member of the San Jose State judo team, coached by future USA Olympic coach Yosh Uchida. While training for the Olympic Games, Campbell attended Meiji University in Tokyo, Japan as a special research student from 1960–1964. In 1964, Campbell competed in judo at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the first Native American on the United States Olympic Judo Team.

In the years after returning from the Olympic Games, Campbell worked as a deputy sheriff in Sacramento County, California, coached the U.S. National Judo Team, operated his own dojo in Sacramento, and taught high school. He and his wife also raised quarterhorses, including a Supreme Champion and AQHA Champion, "Sailors Night". They bought a ranch near Ignacio, Colorado on the Southern Ute reservation in 1978. Campbell was elected to the Colorado State Legislature as a Democrat in November 1982, where he served two terms before successfully running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Colorado's 3rd district, serving three terms.

In 1992, Campbell was elected to the U.S. Senate, the first Native American to serve in the body since Kansas Senator Charles Curtis. In March 1995, after two years in office, Senator Campbell switched parties from Democratic to Republican in the wake of publicized disputes he had with the Colorado Democratic Party. In the 106th Congress, Campbell passed more public laws than any individual member of Congress. During his tenure, Campbell also became the first American Indian to chair the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. In 1999, Campbell voted to support the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision, a ruling which legalized abortion nationwide. He had also been one of seven Republicans who voted "to block an immediate vote" on a bill to ban what were called "partial-birth abortions." He became gradually more conservative during his time in the Senate; he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act while in the Senate and does not support same-sex marriage. However, in 2004, he was one of six Republicans who voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment, a constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage, on the grounds that it should be left to the states. On March 3, 2004, Senator Campbell announced that he would not seek reelection due to health concerns.

After his retirement, Campbell was a senior policy advisor at the firm of Holland and Knight, LLP in Washington, DC. In July 2012, he left that firm to found Ben Nighthorse Consultants, a new lobbying firm.