Harold Lee Volkmer

Harold Lee Volkmer (April 4, 1931 – April 16, 2011) was an American politician from Missouri. He was a Democrat who served 20 years in the United States House of Representatives.

Early life and career Volkmer grew up in Jefferson City, Missouri, where he "got his start in politics helping his mother campaign in Jefferson City, Missouri, for the re-election of President Franklin Roosevelt." He attended Jefferson City Junior College and Saint Louis University. He later received his law degree from the University of Missouri, and passed the bar exam even before graduating. In 1992, however, he was nearly defeated by Republican Rick Hardy, a political science professor at MU, surviving by only 5,800 votes. He faced an equally close race in 1994, when Republican assistant attorney general Kenny Hulshof held him to 50.4 percent of the vote. He lost a rematch to Hulshof in 1996 by just under 5,900 votes. Since then, the Democrats have only once cracked the 40 percent barrier in the district, now numbered as the 3rd.

After leaving Congress, Volkmer served as chairman of the National Commission on Small Farms, and "the members of the National Rifle Association overwhelmingly elected him to their Board of Directors, on which he served for the next 12 years." Volkmer resided in Hannibal, Missouri until his death at age 80 from pneumonia on April 16, 2011.