The real Harry Reid, the most powerful Latter-day Saint politician in history | Episode 432

Mitt Romney may be the most famous Mormon politician, but the title of highest-ranking elected Latter-day Saint in U.S. history belongs not to a rich Utah Republican with a patrician background and deep ties in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but rather to a self-made Nevada Democrat with hardscrabble roots who converted to the faith.

His name: Harry Reid. Passionately partisan, fiercely loyal and discreetly devout, Reid, who died in 2021, rose to majority leader in the U.S. Senate, where the onetime boxer fought for landmark Democratic victories on Obamacare, financial reforms and an economic stimulus package.

He was ruthless and religious — LBJ without the swearing.

Learn more about the real Harry Reid from political journalist Jon Ralston, author of the recently released biography, “The Game Changer: How Harry Reid Remade the Rules and Showed Democrats How to Fight.”