Sen. Jeanne Shaheen

Jeanne Shaheen is the senior United States Senator from New Hampshire. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first female U.S. Senator in New Hampshire’s history, was the first female Governor of New Hampshire, and the first woman elected as both Governor and a U.S. Senator in American history.[1]

After serving two terms in the New Hampshire Senate, Shaheen was elected Governor in 1996, and she was re-elected in 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she opted to run for the United States Senate, losing to Republican 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 also the current dean of New Hampshire’s Congressional Delegation.

Shaheen became the first Democratic Senator from New Hampshire since John A. Durkin, who was defeated in 1980. In 2014, she became only the second Democrat from New Hampshire to be re-elected to the U.S. Senate, and the first since Thomas J. McIntyre in 1972.