Jeanne Shaheen
Cynthia Jeanne Shaheen (/ˈdʒiːn ʃəˈhiːn/ JEEN shə-HEEN; née Bowers, born January 28, 1947) is an American politician and retired educator serving as the senior United States senator from New Hampshire, a seat she has held since January 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she also served as the 78th governor of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003. Shaheen is the first woman elected as both a governor and a U.S. senator.[1]
Jeanne Shaheen
Franklin Torr
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After serving two terms in the New Hampshire Senate, Shaheen was elected governor in 1996 and reelected in 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate against Republican nominee John E. Sununu. She served as director of the Harvard Institute of Politics before resigning to run for the U.S. Senate again in the 2008 election, defeating Sununu in a rematch. She is the dean of New Hampshire's congressional delegation, serving in Congress since 2009.
Shaheen became the first Democratic senator from New Hampshire since John A. Durkin, who was defeated in 1980. In 2014, she became the second Democrat from New Hampshire to be reelected to the Senate and the first since Thomas J. McIntyre in 1972. She was reelected to a third term in 2020, defeating Republican nominee Bryant Messner.
Personal life, education and pre-political career[edit]
Jeanne Shaheen was born Cynthia Jeanne Bowers in St. Charles, Missouri, the daughter of Belle Ernestine (Stillings) and Ivan E. Bowers.[2]
Shaheen graduated from high school in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, and earned a bachelor's degree in English from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in political science from the University of Mississippi.[3] She taught high school in Mississippi[4] and moved to New Hampshire in 1973, where she taught school and, with her husband, owned a store that sold used jewelry.[5] She is married to Bill Shaheen, an attorney and judge. They have three children.
Early political career[edit]
A Democrat, she worked on several campaigns, including Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign, and as the New Hampshire campaign manager for Gary Hart in 1984,[6] before running for office in 1990, when she was elected to the state Senate for the 21st district. She was elected governor of New Hampshire in 1996 and reelected in 1998 and 2000.[7]
In April 2005, Shaheen was named director of Harvard's Institute of Politics,[8] succeeding former U.S. Representative and Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman.
Governor of New Hampshire[edit]
Shaheen's decision to run for New Hampshire governor followed the retirement of Republican Governor Steve Merrill. Her opponent in 1996 was Ovide M. Lamontagne, then chairman of the State Board of Education. Shaheen presented herself as a moderate. According to a PBS profile, she focused on education funding issues, and pledged to expand kindergarten. She defeated Lamontagne by 57 to 40 percent.[9]
Shaheen was the first woman to be elected governor of New Hampshire.[10] (She was not, however, the first woman to serve as New Hampshire's governor; Vesta M. Roy was acting governor from December 30, 1982, until January 6, 1983.)[11]
In 1998, she was reelected by a margin of 66 to 31 percent.[12][13]
In both 1996 and 1998, Shaheen took a no-new-taxes pledge. After a court decision preventing education from being largely supported by local taxes, "her administration devised a plan that would have increased education spending and set a statewide property tax."[14]
Running for a third term in 2000, Shaheen refused to renew her no-new-taxes pledge, becoming the first New Hampshire governor in 38 years to win an election without making that pledge.[15] Shaheen's preferred solution to the school-funding problem was not a broad-based tax but legalized video-gambling at state racetracks—a solution repeatedly rejected by the state legislature.[16][17]
In 2001 Shaheen tried to implement a 2.5% sales tax, the first broad-based tariff of its kind in New Hampshire, which has never had a sales tax. The state legislature rejected her proposal.[18] She also proposed an increase in the state's cigarette tax and a 4.5% capital gains tax.
Presidential politics[edit]
2000[edit]
During the 2000 Democratic presidential primary in New Hampshire, Shaheen supported Al Gore, and her husband served as Gore's New Hampshire campaign manager. According to the New York Observer, the Shaheens were critical in helping Gore win a narrow victory in the New Hampshire primary over Bill Bradley.[19][20]
Gore added Shaheen to his short list of potential vice presidential nominees, which also included Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, North Carolina Senator John Edwards, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman.[21] Shaheen responded to speculation by stating she wasn't interested in the job.[22]
2004[edit]
After a short time teaching at Harvard University (and a fellowship in the Institute of Politics with former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift), Shaheen was named national chairperson of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign in September 2003.