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Federal Election Commission | United States of America

Thomas E. Harris

Headshot of
Democrat
April 1975 to October 1986
(Reappointed May 1976 and June 1979)

Before serving on the Commission, Mr. Harris was associate general counsel to the AFL-CIO in Washington from 1955 to 1975. He had held the same position with the CIO from 1948 until it merged with the AFL in 1955. Before that, he was an attorney in private practice and with various government agencies. A native of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. Harris is a 1935 graduate of Columbia University Law School. After graduation, he clerked one year for Supreme Court Justice Harlan F. Stone.

Mr. Harris was originally appointed to the Commission for a four-year term and, when the agency was reconstituted in 1976, he received a three-year appointment. In 1979, President Carter reappointed Mr. Harris for a six-year term. He was Commission Chairman from May 1977 to May 1978. Although his term expired in April 1985, he continued to serve as Commissioner until October 1986, when he was succeeded by Commissioner Thomas.