Donald A. Bailey
American politician (1945–2020)

Donald Allen Bailey (July 21, 1945 – March 9, 2020) was an American lawyer and politician from Pennsylvania. He was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1983, Auditor General of Pennsylvania from 1985 to 1989, and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senate and Governor of Pennsylvania. His Congressional District (PA-21) included all of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania with a sliver of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, prior to the 1981 redistricting.
Early life, education, and early career
Bailey was born in Allegheny County to Glenn and Anna Bailey. He was raised in Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. He graduated from Greensburg High School in 1963. He completd a BA (1967) at the University of Michigan. He played college football at the guard position for the Michigan Wolverines football team from 1964 to 1966. He played in the 1965 Rose Bowl and North/South All Star Game.
After college, he entered the United States Army, serving with the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in Vietnam.
“Donald A. Bailey” enters the record as american politician (1945–2020). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Donald, Bailey and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5293918. VIAF identifies the subject as 251008272. The Library of Congress control number is no2012079744. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1945, 2020, 1979 and 1983.
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This entry incorporates text from “Donald A. Bailey” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.