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Lugar Loses Republican Senate Primary


U.S. Senator Richard Lugar
U.S. Senator Richard Lugar
U.S. Senator Richard Lugar has lost his Republican Party primary in the state of Indiana to a challenger from the Tea Party movement -- ending nearly four decades in the Senate.

Lugar, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lost to Indiana state Treasurer Richard Mourdock.

Lugar's career was highlighted by his work on nuclear nonproliferation.

In 1991, he and former Democratic Senator Sam Nunn were responsible for passage of a treaty that provided money to secure and dismantle weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet states.

Their Cooperative Threat Reduction Program resulted in the denuclearization of Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Belarus.

It also made funding available to decommission nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons as agreed to by the Soviet Union under disarmament treaties such as SALT II.

Based on reporting by AP, Reuters, and AFP

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