Over the course of his lengthy public career, Richard Gephardt has cast himself as a populist who identifies with the working class, shares its values and maintains deep roots with his community. He still travels door-to-door in his district to speak with his constituents and get feedback from them. A supporter of his city's sports teams, Gephardt is a devout Cardinals fan and initiated the deal that brought the Rams from Los Angeles to St. Louis. In the two Super Bowls in which the Rams appeared, he has made high profile wagers with other politicians on his city's team winning. After the team lost to New England in 2002, Gephardt donned a Patriot's cap and a silly smile while offering St. Louis specialties like Budweiser to Rep. Martin Meehan of Massachusetts.

Gephardt was born in St. Louis in 1941 in the same neighborhood, as he is fond of pointing out, that he represents today. He attended college at Northwestern University before moving on to the University of Michigan's Law School. After his graduation in 1965, Gephardt began to practice law with the St. Louis firm Thompson & Mitchell, and he chaired the Young Lawyer's Section of the Bar Association of Metro St. Louis. Gephardt's political career began on the local level when he was elected the precinct captain at St. Louis's 14th ward. He subsequently served two terms as alderman and in this capacity became regarded as the leader of the "Young Turks," a group of aggressive young reformers. Thanks to this experience and grassroots support, Gephardt's career raced forward and in 1976 he easily won the election for the open seat of Missouri's 3rd District representative to congress.

During his first term, Gephardt landed a seat on the Ways and Means and Budget Committees – a rarity for a freshman. He earned a reputation for independence, bucking his party on taxes (he voted for President Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cuts) and budgetary issues. Over the next 8 years, Gephardt continued to climb through the Democratic Party ranks until he was elected chairman of the House Democratic Caucus in 1984.

As he rose in the party, Gephardt's politics became more and more within the Democratic mainstream. Reorienting his positions to oppose Reagan's policies, Gephardt's views began to dovetail more closely with traditionally New Deal Democratic constituencies. In consequence, he became an advocate for issues concerning labor, the elderly, minorities and the poor, a political agenda that he still follows today. Gephardt is in favor of legislation shoring up Social Security until 2050 at least, has historically supported efforts to increase the minimum wage, and recently tried to curry favor with Hispanic voters by trying to revamp U.S. immigration laws. In July 2002, he vowed to submit legislation that would effectively grant an "amnesty" to more than 8 million illegal aliens in the United States, despite his own admission that the bill had no hope of passing.

In 1987, Gephardt was the first Democrat to declare his candidacy for the party's presidential primaries. Though still a relative unknown, Gephardt did surprisingly well in the Iowa Caucus, but was eventually forced to withdraw his bid when his campaign ran out of funds before the "Super Tuesday" primaries, which were concentrated in southern states.

In the course of his failed run for the Democratic nomination for President, the Gephardt campaign received an unusual unsecured $125,000 loan from the Federal City Bank, an organization in Washington, D.C., founded by "Democratic Party stalwarts" who drew their client base from political connections. Current Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe was involved at both ends of the deal: he sat on the bank's board and served as Gephardt's finance director.

Gephardt's failed run for the 1988 nomination increased his national recognition and secured a role for him as a prominent member of the Democratic Party. In 1989, when House Speaker Jim Wright was forced to resign over a number of ethics charges, Gephardt emerged from the ensuing shakeup as the majority leader – the number two position in the House.

In 1994, Republicans won a majority of seats in the House of Representatives – something they had not done since Dwight Eisenhower was president – and swept Wright's successor, Thomas S. Foley, out of office. Gephardt became the top Democrat in the House. In four elections, he tried to lead his colleagues back into the majority, but never succeeded.

For some time there has been a general buzz about Gephardt's presidential ambitions. Now serving his 14th term as Representative to Missouri's 3rd District, he has said that this will be his last. He further added fuel to the speculative furnace when he stepped down from his position as minority leader after his party's failure to regain control of the House from Republicans in the 2002 elections. But it was not until early January 2003 that Gephardt formally declared his intention to seek the Democratic Presidential nomination, declaring that the Bush administration was leading America "down the wrong path or not leading at all."

With Al Gore out of the race for the White House, many experts feel that Gephardt is one of the first tier contenders for the Democratic nomination and a force to be reckoned with. Thanks to his Minority Leader position in the House, he benefits from national name recognition second only to Sen. Joe Lieberman, Al Gore's running-mate in 2000. His opposition to Bush's tax cut and domestic policies also gives Gephardt a political platform that voters can easily differentiate from the Bush Administration's. In particular Gephardt's anti-free trade policies win him unique and unqualified support from unions and labor.

But it may be Gephardt's extensive network of political connections that ends up being his greatest advantage. Given his experience in national politics and prior tries for the White House, Gephardt has established and maintained allies nationwide, most importantly in key primary states like New Hampshire. As one New Hampshire activist puts it "I don't think there has been an election in New Hampshire since 1985 where Dick Gephardt didn't come in to help Democratic candidates. I don't think there is anybody in the past, or who is getting into this race, who has maintained that kind of a connection."

Clearly this support will be a remarkable advantage for Gephardt vis-à-vis freshman nomination seekers, like John Edwards and Howard Dean, who are till laying foundations for their respective national campaigns.