Pepper, Claude D.

Pepper, Claude D. (Denson)

(1900–89) U.S. senator and representative; born near Dudleyville, Ala. A pro-labor liberal, he was elected to the U.S. Senate (Dem., Fla.; 1936–50), where he supported Roosevelt's domestic and foreign policies. After losing his seat in an election marked by anticommunist hysteria, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1962–89). Congress's oldest member in his last years, he defended Social Security and opposed retirement restrictions.