Ben Campbell

Ben Nighthorse Campbell joined the US Air Force in 1951, serving in Korea. He then used the GI Bill to attend and graduate from San Jose State University in 1957. He took up judo at that school and then studied in Japan at Meiji University to further his judo training. Campbell won US judo titles in 1961-63 and won a gold medal in the open class at the 1963 Pan American Games. After the 1964 Olympics Campbell worked as a deputy sheriff in Sacramento County, California, coached the US National Judo Team, operated his own dojo in Sacramento, and taught high school (physical education and art classes). He and his wife also raised quarterhorses, and bought a ranch in Colorado on the Southern Ute reservation in 1978.

In 1982 Campbell was elected to the Colorado State Legislature, serving two terms. In 1986 he was elected to the US House of Representatives, serving as a Democrat for three terms. In 1992 he was elected to the US Senate from Colorado, serving two terms. Elected to the Senate as a Democrat, he switched to the Republican party in March 1995, leaving the Senate in 2004. He considered running for Governor of Colorado in 2006, but eventually decided against it.

Campbell is of Native American descent, from the Northern Cheyenne tribe. He is a member of the Council of Chiefs of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe. While in the Senate, Campbell was the first American Indian to chair the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. After leaving the Senate he was a senior policy advisor for Holland and Knight, until 2012, when he founded his own lobbying firm, Ben Nighthorse Consultants. In 2011 a reservoir in southwestern Colorado was named for him, Lake Nighthorse.