Jeffords, James Merrill (1934-2014), represented Vermont in the United States Senate from 1989 to 2007. He left the Republican Party to become an Independent in 2001. As a result, the Democrats became the majority in the Senate. It was the first time in Senate history that control of the Senate shifted when a senator changed parties. As a result of elections in 2002, however, the Republican Party regained control of the Senate.
Jeffords, though a Republican, had a liberal voting record before becoming an Independent. He said he had found himself often disagreeing with what he considered the increasingly conservative agenda of the Republican Party. He said he left the party to best serve Vermont and his own principles. Before Jeffords switched parties, the Senate had been made up of 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans.
Jeffords chaired the Committee on Environment and Public Works from 2001 to 2003. He also was a member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Finance Committee. He supported a family leave bill that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. He also supported an increase in the legal minimum wage that Clinton called for and Congress approved in 1996.
Jeffords was born on May 11, 1934, in Rutland, Vermont. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1956. He served in the United States Navy from 1956 to 1959. Jeffords received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1962 and began to practice law. From 1964 to 1966, he chaired the Rutland County, Vermont, Board of Tax Appeals. He served in the Vermont state Senate from 1967 to 1968. He was state attorney general from 1969 to 1973.
Jeffords was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1989. He served three terms in the U.S. Senate after first being elected in 1988. He did not seek reelection to the Senate in 2006 because of his and his wife’s health. Jeffords died on Aug. 18, 2014.
