Nancy landon kassebaum biography

American politician (born 1932)

Nancy Josephine Kassebaum Baker (née Landon; born July 29, 1932^[1]) is a retired American politician from Kansas who served as a member of the United States Senate from 1978 to 1997. She is the daughter of Alf Landon, who was Governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937 and the 1936Republican nominee for president, and the widow of former U.S. senator and diplomat Howard Baker.

With her victory in the 1978 U.S. Senate election in Kansas, Kassebaum entered the national spotlight as the only woman in the U.S. Senate, and as the first woman to represent Kansas. She was also the first woman ever elected to a full term in the Senate without her husband having previously served in Congress.^[a]

In her three terms in the Senate, Kassebaum demonstrated a political independence that made her a key figure in building bi-partisan coalitions in foreign affairs and domestic policy.^[1] As chair of the Senate Subc Nancy landon kassebaum baker!