
Jeanne Shaheen (born 28 January 1947), born Cynthia Jeanne Bowers, was the senior United States senator from New Hampshire from 3 January 2009, succeeding John E. Sununu and serving alongside Kelly Ayotte. From 9 January 1997 to 9 January 2003, she also served as the state governor, succeeding Steve Merrill and preceding Craig Benson; as of 2016, she was the only woman to be both a governor and senator.
Biography[]
Cynthia Bowers was born on 28 January 1947 in Saint Charles, Missouri, but the family later moved to Pennsylvania, where she attended high school in Selinsgrove. Bowers later became a teacher in Mississippi, and in 1973 she moved to New Hampshire, marrying Lebanese-American attorney Bill Shaheen. In 1976, she worked on Jimmy Carter's presidential campaign, and she would later be elected to the state senate. On 9 January 1997, she was elected Governor of New Hampshire, and she was re-elected many times. On 3 January 2009, she was elected as a senior senator from New Hampshire, and she sat on the Congressional Armed Services, Foreign Relations, Appropriations, and Small Business Committees under President Barack Obama. In 2016, she endorsed Hillary Clinton as the US Democratic Party's presidential nominee, and she was one of the speakers at Democratic National Convention on 25 July 2016.