Politicians With Disabilities
Many of the world's past and present politicians have disabilities.
"You've said it yourself a million times. If there had been a TV in every living room sixty years ago, this country does not elect a man in a wheelchair."
This line, spoken by the White House Chief of Staff in 1995’s The American President, holds more truth than the writers of the movie probably knew. The line referred to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who lost partial use of his legs due to polio eleven years before he was elected to his first term in the Oval Office. If the American people could have seen the crutches and the wheelchair that FDR used, there is great debate, even among scholars, as to whether he would have been elected to office once, let alone four times.
FDR wasn’t the only disabled politician. Politicians with a wide variety of physical disabilities have been elected to serve their respective countries.
Australia
Graham Edwards, a member of the Australian Labor Party, is an above-the-knee double amputee as the result of injuries sustained from a landmine blast while he was serving in Vietnam. He has been a politician since the mid-1970’s and is currently the Parliamentary Secretary for Defense and Veterans Affairs.
Canada
After breaking his neck at the age of 19 in a skiing accident, Sam Sullivan went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in business administration and found six non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities in North America. In May 2005, Sullivan won his party’s nomination to run and became mayor of Vancouver. He announced in September that he will run for re-election in 2008.
France
A companion of Robespierre, Georges Couthon was an able lawyer, an important member of the Committee of Public Safety and held many other public offices. . Although his legs were paralyzed, Couthon was considered a leader of the French Revolution. He fell at the coup of Thermidor and was guillotined.
United Kingdom
Gordon Brown the current British Prime Minister, is blind in his left eye. He suffered a retinal detachment after being kicked in the head during a rugby match while at university and, despite several operations, was left permanently blind.
United States
- John Porter East, former United States Senator from North Carolina was a paraplegic due to polio.
- Bob Kerry, former governor of and outgoing U.S. Senator from Nebraska is an above-the-knee amputee. He lost his leg in 1969 while serving in Nha Trang Bay, Vietnam.
- A fellow Vietnam veteran of Kerry's, Max Cleland was a member of the Georgia State Senate, Georgia’s Secretary of State and the U.S. Senator from the state. Cleland is a triple amputee due to injuries sustained during combat, where he lost both legs and part of his arm.
- George Wallace, former governor of Alabama, was shot while campaigning in Maryland in 1972. While the shot did not cause a fatality, it did cause Wallace to become a paraplegic.
To see a more complete list of past and present U.S. politicians with disabilities, visit the Political Graveyard.
