Virtually all of Nelson’s life has been devoted to public service. He’s a native Floridian with degrees from Yale and the University of Virginia Law School. While practicing law in Melbourne, he was elected to three terms in the state House. He went on to six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. He flew as a crew member on the Space Shuttle Columbia. After losing the 1990 Democratic gubernatorial primary, he was elected treasurer and insurance commissioner in 1994 and worked with Republican Comptroller Robert Milligan to have their offices combined by constitutional revision. In 2000, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he is senior Democrat on the committees on Finance; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Armed Services; and the Special Committee on Aging.