Dennis John Kucinich (born October 8, 1946) is a United States Representative from Ohio. He was a hopeful for President of the United States in 2008. He is a Democrat. Kucinich was raised in Cleveland, and was elected Mayor of the city in 1977. His tenure as mayor was a hard one, and he lost reelection to Republican challenger George Voinovich in 1979. Kucinich got back into politics in the 1990s, and became a member of the United States House of Representatives in the 1994 elections. A political progressive, he ran for president twice in 2004 and 2008.