Family: Ex-Sen. McGovern 'no longer responsive'

[October 18, 2012]  SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The family of ex-U.S. Sen. George McGovern says the 90-year-old is "no longer responsive" in hospice care.

McGovern's family issued a statement Wednesday afternoon through Avera McKennan Hospital.

His daughter, Ann McGovern, earlier told The Associated Press that her father is "nearing the end" and appears restful and peaceful. She says it's a blessing that she and other family members are able to be with him.

McGovern was the Democratic presidential candidate who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide. He was a member of the U.S. House from 1957 to 1961 and a U.S. senator from 1963 to 1981, and considered a leader in his party's liberal wing during that time.

In recent years, he turned his focus to world hunger.

[Associated Press]

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