George Allen-Gap Rating 3/10

He is a Republican United States Senator from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the son of NFL head coach George Allen. Allen is running for re-election in 2006 and has been mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2008 Presidential election.

Allen's father, George Herbert Allen, of Dutch-Irish and Scottish descent, was a legendary NFL coach who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2002.

Allen's mother, Henrietta Lumbroso, is of French Tunisian descent, and comes from the august Sephardic Jewish Lumbroso family. According to Allen, Henrietta's father had been imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Both of Allen's maternal grandparents were Jewish.

He has a younger sister, Jennifer, and two brothers, Gregory and Bruce. According to Jennifer Allen, their mother "prided herself for being un-American. ... She was ashamed that she had given up her French citizenship to become a citizen of a country she deemed infantile." George Allen, on the other hand, has long been enamored with the rural culture of the U.S., particularly that of the South.

The family lived in Southern California until 1957, when they moved to the suburbs of Chicago after George Sr. got a job with the Chicago Bears. The family moved back to Southern California (Palos Verdes) in 1966 after Allen's father was named head coach of the Los Angeles Rams.

Allen graduated in 1970 from Palos Verdes High School, where he was a member of the falconry club and the car club. He was also quarterback of the varsity football team. He was once suspended for painting graffiti on school walls along with other students.

Allen attended the University of California, Los Angeles for a year before transferring to the University of Virginia, in 1971, where he received a B.A. degree with distinction in history in 1974. He was class president in his senior year at UVA.

After graduating, Allen completed a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1977. In 1976 he was the chairman of the "Young Virginians for Ronald Reagan". Allen was a supporter of Richard Nixon and the Vietnam War, although he did not serve in that conflict, taking a student deferment instead.

Allen was married to Anne Patrice Rubel from June 1979 to 1983, when they divorced. Allen married Susan Brown in June 1986 and the couple now have three children: Tyler, Forrest, and Brooke. The Allens are residents of Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Allen is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He is fond of using football metaphors, a tendency which has been remarked upon by journalists and commentators. Allen has been chewing tobacco since he was introduced to it in high school by his father's football players.

Allen was elected to the Senate in November 2000, defeating the Democratic incumbent, Chuck Robb, son-in-law of the late President Lyndon B. Johnson. George Allen was the only Republican to unseat a Democrat incumbent that year. Allen is a member of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, the Foreign Relations Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Allen was appointed in the last Congress to serve as the chairman of the High Tech Task Force. Allen was elected as a member of the Senate Republican leadership as Chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2002, and oversaw a net gain of four seats for the Republicans in the 2004 Senate elections. His successor as NRSC chair is Senator Elizabeth Dole.