Edward Gene "Ed" Rendell (born January 5, 1944) is an American politician and Governor of Pennsylvania. Rendell, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002, and his term of office began January 21, 2003. He is currently a Member of the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee, and also served as General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential election. From 2008 to 2009, Governor Rendell was Chairman of the National Governors Association. He currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Team Pennsylvania Foundation and sits on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, a museum dedicated to the U.S. Constitution. He is married to Marjorie Rendell, a Federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Rendell was born in New York City to Jewish American parents Jesse T. Rendell and Emma Sloat; all four of his grandparents were immigrants from Russia. He attended Riverdale Country School before the University of Pennsylvania, B.A. degree, 1965, and Villanova Law School, Juris Doctor, 1968. He served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1968 to 1974.

Rendell was elected District Attorney of Philadelphia in 1977, defeating the incumbent Democratic DA, F. Emmett Fitzpatrick, in the primary election. Rendell ran a campaign that emphasized that he was new to the political scene and not tainted by corruption. In 1980, Rendell received 28 delegate votes for Vice President of the United States at the Democratic National Convention, although he was not a candidate. He served two terms as DA before leaving in 1986 to run for Governor of Pennsylvania. He was defeated in the Democratic gubernatorial primary by Robert P. Casey, Sr.