Lincoln Chafee wrestled at Brown UniversityChafee is the second Democratic candidate to withdraw from the 2016 Presidential race. Earlier this week, former Virginia governor Jim Webb also pulled out of the campaign. That leaves former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley among the roster of Democrats vying for the White House.
Chafee announced his campaign at George Mason University outside Washington in early June, but it struggled to gain traction, facing fundraising challenges -- having raised only about $30,000, the New York Times reported -- and barely registering in most polls.
The former Ivy League wrestler did have one key figure in his corner: Conan O'Brien. The late-night TV host championed Chafee as the ultimate underdog, and enlisted Ted Leo and Aimee Mann to write him a theme song, to the tune of "She Drives Me Crazy," according to Molly Ball of The Atlantic. One couplet: "He's only got 12 Facebook friends; he looks like Chris Matthews on a juice cleanse."
A 1975 graduate of Brown, Lincoln Davenport Chafee, 62, earned a degree in the Classics at the school located in Providence, R.I. He was a four-year varsity wrestler for the Brown Bears, serving as team captain as a senior. Years after stepping off the mat, Chafee remained a supporter of the Brown wrestling team. When the school threatened to eliminate wrestling and a handful of other sports in April 2011, Chafee -- at the time, governor of Rhode Island -- was a member of presentation team to save wrestling. "(Chafee) was there to be an advocate for Brown wrestling," said Hudson Collins, a student representative of the wrestling team present at the meeting, the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper reported at the time. "He's willing to take time out of his busy schedule to come speak not only about the importance of preserving the Brown wrestling program but also the other teams in general." The varsity wrestling program remains on the roster of Brown intercollegiate sports.
Lincoln Chafee launched his political career 30 years ago, serving as a mayor, senator and governor for Rhode Island. He was appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat of his father John Chafee, who died of congestive heart failure in 1999 at age 77. Like his son, John Chafee also wrestled in the Ivy League, at Yale University, where he was undefeated as a freshman, and was a runner-up at the EIWA (Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) championships, according to the amateur wrestling website TheMat.com. John Chafee was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame as an Outstanding American in 1993.
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