Shaheen, Jeanne (1947-…), a Democrat from New Hampshire, became a member of the United States Senate in 2009. Shaheen had previously served as governor of New Hampshire from 1997 to 2003. Shaheen was New Hampshire’s first woman governor.
Jeanne Shaheen was born in St. Charles, Missouri, on Jan. 28, 1947. Her maiden name was Jeanne Bowers. In 1969, she graduated from Shippensburg University (then Shippensburg State College) of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in English. That same year, she married William H. Shaheen, a lawyer and judge. She earned a master’s degree in political science from the University of Mississippi in 1973.
After working as a high school teacher, Jeanne Shaheen entered politics. She first ran for the New Hampshire state Senate in 1978, but she did not win the election. In 1990, she ran again and won. She served in the state Senate from 1991 to 1996. She was elected governor in 1996 and reelected in 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she ran for the U.S. Senate but lost to Republican John E. Sununu. From 2003 to 2007, Shaheen was director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. In 2008, she again ran against Sununu for the U.S. Senate seat and won. In 2014, Shaheen defeated Scott Brown, a former senator from Massachusetts, to win reelection. She was reelected in 2020.
