Walter "Dee" Huddleston, a former two-term U.S. senator from Kentucky who lost his re-election bid to Republican Mitch McConnell in 1984, has died. He was 92. Huddleston's son, Steve, said his father died in his sleep early Tuesday in Warsaw, Kentucky.
Dee Huddleston was a World War II veteran who became a Democratic powerbroker in Kentucky. He served as a state senator from 1965 to 1972, when voters elevated him to the U.S. Senate. He served there from 1973 through 1984.
In one of the state's most storied political campaigns, McConnell unseated Huddleston by just over 5,000 votes out of 1.29 million votes cast.
McConnell, then the Jefferson County judge-executive, was boosted by Republican President Ronald Reagan's landslide re-election victory in Kentucky. McConnell is now the Senate majority leader.