Harold Ford Jr., the former Democratic Congressman from Tennessee, is now a managing director and senior client relationship manager at Morgan Stanley. Perhaps because he’s the son of Harold Ford, Sr., who also represented Tennessee in Congress for 20 years, it’s not surprising that the younger Ford said he can never fully leave behind politics, despite his unsuccessful senatorial campaign in 2010. These days, Ford also teaches public policy at New York University’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service.
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Recently, Ford said on “Off The Cuff” that he doesn’t rule out a return to politics and would love “a chance to be in the U.S. Senate.”
“I’ve grown and matured a lot since then,” he said. “Public life is something that still excites me.” Ford is also a self-described “junkie” for college basketball and said he is too embarrassed to admit how many of his father’s biscuits he can eat during Sunday brunch. Now a New Yorker, Ford indulges in his passion for the Southern food of his childhood, saying “I’m a big chicken and ribs guy, so we get ribs sent up probably twice a month from our favorite rib place in Memphis.”
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In his spare time, Ford also loves to read biographies, having just finished books on Lyndon Johnson, Colin Powell, and Walter Cronkite. He also walks his dog and surrounds himself with family and friends, even on romantic vacations with his wife.
“I do play golf when we go on vacation, much to my wife’s irritation,” he said. “And just kind of enjoy my friends. If they can go with us on vacation, even better. Sometimes, again, that’s to the dislike of my wife.”
Whether teaching, banking, or reading, Ford likes to get his day going with a run or walk while Mick Jagger is belting out “Start Me Up” or Montell Jordan is singing “This is How We Do It.” But it’s Michael Jackson’s “Wanna Be Startin’ Something” that gets Ford through “the last five minutes of the run.” And by the looks of it, there is no end in sight for Ford.