Harris Llewellyn Wofford Jr.[1] (April 9, 1926 – January 21, 2019) was an American attorney, civil rights activist, and Democratic Party politician who represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate from 1991 to 1995.

[2] A noted advocate of national service and volunteering, Wofford was also the fifth president of Bryn Mawr College from 1970 to 1978, served as chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party in 1986 and also as Pennsylvania Secretary of Labor and Industry in the cabinet of Governor Robert P. Casey from 1987 to 1991, and was a surrogate for Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.

They spent Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, visited Shanghai shortly after the Imperial Japanese Army captured it, spent time in India where Wofford became "fascinated" by Mahatma Gandhi and visited Rome, where they saw Benito Mussolini announce Italy's withdrawal from the League of Nations and a subsequent fascist parade.

[4] While attending Scarsdale High School,[5] he was inspired by Clarence Streit's plea for a world government to found the Student Federalists.

[4] After eight months on a fellowship in India, conducting a study of the recently assassinated Gandhi, he and his wife Clare returned to America.

He was an early supporter of the Civil Rights Movement in the South in the 1950s, accompanying Indian activist Ram Manohar Lohia on a tour of the South in 1951[4] and becoming a friend and unofficial advisor to Martin Luther King Jr.[4] Wofford first met John F. Kennedy in 1947 at a party at Clare Boothe Luce's Connecticut home.

[4] Wofford's political career began in 1960 when Kennedy asked him to join his presidential campaign and work with Sargent Shriver on winning over the "Negro vote".

[4] Wofford's book Of Kennedys and Kings: Making Sense of the Sixties details his years in the civil rights movement and the creation of the Peace Corps.

[14] After spending seven years in private law practice in Philadelphia, Wofford served as the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party from June to December 1986.

After considering several potential candidates, including Chrysler president and Allentown native Lee Iacocca, who turned down the job, Governor Casey appointed Wofford to the seat on May 8, 1991.

[18] In the special election, held in November 1991, Wofford faced Dick Thornburgh, the former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

Candidates for this special election were chosen by the party committees because the vacancy had happened too late to set up a primary.

[4][19] Wofford's campaign was run by Paul Begala and James Carville, and their dramatic success brought them to national attention.

[23] The election was part of that year's Republican Revolution, in which many Democrats were ousted from both houses of the United States Congress.

[33][34] In April 2016 at the age of 90, Wofford announced that he would marry interior designer Matthew Charlton, a man 50 years his junior and his companion since 2001.