Paul Efthemios Tsongas (February 14, 1941–January 18, 1997) was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the United States Democratic Party.
Tsongas was born to a working-class Greek father and Massachusetts mother. He attended Dartmouth and Yale Law School before settling in Lowell, Massachusetts.
He first entered politics as a city councillor and then served two terms in the United States House of Representatives. In 1978 he was elected to the Senate. In 1984, however, he was diagnosed with cancer and left the Senate. After fighting the illness he returned to politics and in 1992 ran for his party's nomination for President. He ran a strong campaign and succeeded in winning the New Hampshire primary, but was eventually eclipsed by a resurgent Bill Clinton, who would go on to win the Presidency. Tsongas was viewed as a centrist who embraced a number of Republican policies. He was especially known for his strongly pro-business economic policies. As a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1992, Tsongas proudly proclaimed that his policies would be "the best for Wall Street."
A few years later the cancer returned and he died of pneumonia and liver failure two days short of what, had he won the presidency, would have been the end of his first term.
On January 27, 1998, the Tsongas Arena in Lowell was dedicated in his honor.
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