Rep. Phil Crane, R-Ill., looks down at a news conference after being defeated by Democratic businesswoman Melissa Bean on Nov. 2, 2004, in Wauconda, Ill.
Former Rep. Philip Crane, R-Ill., a Republican who championed conservative principles and once ran for president, died Saturday in Maryland, according to his family.
Crane, who had congestive heart failure and lung cancer, died of respiratory failure in a daughter’s home in Jefferson, Md., according to another daughter, Catherine Hott, of Berryville, Va.
Crane, a Republican who served in the House of Representatives from 1969 to 2005, turned 84 last week.
When he lost his seat to Democrat Melissa Bean in 2004, Crane was the longest serving Republican member of the House.
Crane was a key figure in the fledgling conservative movement that became a standard of American politics, reaching heights that included the election of Ronald Reagan and the Republican capture of both houses of Congress.
Source: Chicago Tribune | Katherine Skiba
