Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, the 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president who later became a political independent, died of complications from a fall, his family announced Wednesday.
"Senator Lieberman's love of God, his family, and America endured throughout his life of service in the public interest," his family said in a written statement.
Lieberman, 82, a former Connecticut state senator and attorney general who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1988, developed a reputation for bipartisanship during his years in Washington. Lieberman was also the first Jewish-American candidate nominated on a major party ticket.
After former Vice President Al Gore clinched the presidential nomination in 2000, he made Lieberman his running mate in part because the senator had criticized President Bill Clinton's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. He was the first prominent Democrat to do so.
The Gore-Lieberman ticket lost to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney after a contentious and still-disputed recount in Florida.