“If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.”

American lawyer, author, and politician

Arlen Specter was an American lawyer, author, and politician, active in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He served as a United States senator from Pennsylvania from 1981 to 2011 and was the longest-serving senator in that state’s history. Specter’s career in public life was marked by party changes as well as long service in the Senate. He was a Democrat from 1951 to 1965, then a Republican until 2009, when he returned to the Democratic Party. He was first elected in 1980 and represented Pennsylvania for 30 years.