Chicago, Illinois – Former US Senator Adlai E. Stevenson III, the fourth generation of an influential Illinois Democratic political family to hold public office and who lost the closest governor’s race in state history, died Monday in his Chicago home. He was 90.

Stevenson represented Illinois in the US Senate from 1970 through 1981.

His great-grandfather served as 23rd vice president of the United States, and his father served as Illinois’ 31st governor and twice ran as the Democratic nominee for president.

His wife of 67 years, Nancy Stevenson, confirmed his death.

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"When he was in the Senate, he didn’t go to a lot of fancy dinners. He came home to dinner with the family," she said. "That was his first and constant concern, the family."

Stevenson’s political career began when he was elected in 1964 as a member of the Illinois House.

He then successfully ran for Illinois treasurer in 1966, holding that office until November 1970 when he won a special US Senate election.

In 1982, Stevenson ran for governor. He had initially sought the Democratic Party’s backing for the office in 1968, but was brushed aside by then-Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley.

The 1982 match-up would go down as the tightest race for governor in Illinois history, with Stevenson losing by less than 1 percentage point – 5,074 votes to be exact – to Republican incumbent James R. Thompson.

He began the process for a recount by reviewing a portion of ballots in selected counties.

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He contended the partial recount indicated he would win by some 40,000 votes. His team argued the case before the Illinois Supreme Court, which at the time was made up of four Democrats and three Republicans.

One Democratic justice joined the three Republican justices in ruling the state’s recount statute was unconstitutional, handing the victory to Thompson.

In a 2017 interview with the Tribune, an 86-year-old Stevenson joked, "I still haven’t conceded, by the way."

In 1986, he ran for governor again as a third-party candidate, but lost by a landslide. He went on to a lengthy private sector career with a focus on business relations in East Asia.

In his bids for governor, Stevenson often said he was born to run for office and often referenced the political debt he owed his famous father.

He also wrote The Black Book, which "records American politics and history as his family knew it over five generations of active engagement, starting with Abraham Lincoln in central Illinois," according to the family obituary.

In his 2017 interview with the Tribune, Stevenson noted that his son, executive Adlai Stevenson IV, and grandson Adlai Stevenson V didn’t seem inclined to follow his footsteps into politics.

"My father said he was 'born with an incurable hereditary disease of politics,'" Stevenson said. "Apparently, the disease has been cured."

The late politician's wife, Nancy Stevenson, summed up her 67-year marriage to him as "one long adventure."

"He was a man who loved to explore every time he was in a new place," she said. "He loved to explore ideas, and he took his family with him every chance he got."

In addition to his wife, Stevenson is survived by two sons, Adlai IV and Warwick; two brothers, John and Borden; and nine grandchildren.