Michigan Democrat Carl Levin, whose service from 1979 to 2015 made him the Wolverine State’s longest-serving senator, died Thursday at the age of 87. Levin, who twice led the Armed Services Committee, was an influential figure during his time on Capitol Hill, and he played an integral role in passing the 2010 bill that ended the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”policy. The senator was also known for his investigations into corporate wrongdoing, including his 2002 probe of Enron.
Levin, who was the nephew of a federal judge, got his start in public life in 1964 as general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, and then went on to help create the Detroit Public Defender's Office. Levin’s older brother, Sandy Levin, was the more famous of the two at the time, as he was elected to the state Senate in 1964 before serving as state party chair and as minority leader. Carl Levin soon joined him in elected office when he won the 1968 race for a seat on the Detroit City Council, and he later rose to become council president; during this stint, Levin became well-known at home for protecting the city’s interests from the federal government.