Larry Lee Pressler (born March 29, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician from South Dakota who served in the United States House of Representatives (1975–1979) and United States Senate (1979–1997) as a Republican. He remained active in politics following his failed reelection campaign in 1996 and attempted to regain his former seat in 2014 as an independent, but was unsuccessful. He has since supported the Democratic tickets. Pressler is founder and president of the Pressler Group, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, a small business to work on projects in service of veterans. Early life Larry Lee Pressler was born in Humboldt, South Dakota, to Loretta Claussen and Antone Lewis Pressler and was raised on his family's farm. In 1961 he was selected as one of four 4-H members to attend the World Agricultural Fair in Cairo, Egypt. At the 1962 National 4-H Club Congress in Chicago, Illinois, he was one of two recipients of the national citizenship award and also selected to meet with President John F. Kennedy on March 4, 1963. In 1963, he defeated Steve Byrnes with 1,014 to 909 votes and was elected as president of the University of South Dakota's Student Association to serve until 1964. He graduated from the University of South Dakota in 1964 and was later awarded the Rhodes Scholarship. Pressler attended St. Edmund Hall at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and received a Bachelor of Arts. He returned to the United States and in 1966 completed his Master of Public Administration degree at Harvard University. He joined the United States Army and served in the Vietnam War from 1966 until 1968. After returning from Vietnam as a first lieutenant, he served for several years in the United States Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. He later attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Harvard Law School where he graduated in 1971. In 1970 he became the business manager of the Harvard Law Record. Career House of Representatives During the 1968 House elections Pressler considered running for the Democratic nomination for the 1st Congressional District, but chose not to run. In 1974, he filed to run for the Republican nomination in the 1st District on the last day possible and later won it, but the South Dakota Republican Party told him that he would not be given any campaign funds. Despite the Watergate scandal