Category: State Senator / page 3

Kay Hagan
Kay Hagan


Kay Hagan served in the U.S. Senate representing North Carolina from 2009 to 2015. Hagan was born on May 26, 1953, in Shelby, North Carolina. After the family moved to Lakeland, Florida, her father later served as the mayor of Lakeland. Hagan's mother was the sister of Lawton M. Chiles, Jr., who represented Florida in the U.S. Senate from 1971 to 1989 and served as the state’s governor from 1991-1998. Hagan earned a B.A. in American Studies from Florida State University in 1975 and a J.D. from Wake Forest University […]
Bethany Hall-Long
Bethany Hall-Long


Bethany Hall-Long assumed office as the lieutenant governor of Delaware on January 17, 2017. She is running for governor in the 2024 election. Hall-Long was born on November 12, 1963, in Sussex County, Delaware. She earned her Bachelor's of Science in nursing from Thomas Jefferson University, her Master of Science in nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina, and her doctorate in nursing and public policy from George Mason University. Prior to being elected lieutenant governor, Hall-Long served in the Delaware Senate from 2009 to 2017 representing District 10. […]
Debbie Halvorson
Debbie Halvorson


Deborah "Debbie" Halvorson represented Illinois' 11th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 2009 until 2011. Halvorson was born March 1, 1958, in Chicago Heights, Illinois. She served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2009, and in 2005 was elected as the first female majority leader of the Illinois State Senate. While serving in the state Senate, Halvorson completed her Bachelor of Arts and her master's in communication, with degrees from Robert Morris College, Prairie State College, and Governors State University. For information on Halvorson's […]
Colleen Hanabusa
Colleen Hanabusa


Colleen Hanabusa represented Hawaii's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. She had not run for re-election in 2014, instead choosing to run for the U.S. Senate but losing that race in a close primary. In November 2016, she won a special election to fill the remaining term of the late Rep. Mark Takai, who had won her old seat in the 1st District but passed away in July 2016, and also won the general election for that seat. […]
Rita Hart
Rita Hart


Rita Hart served in the Iowa State Senate from 2013-2019. In January 2023, Hart was elected chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. Hart was born in 1956 in Charles City, Iowa. She earned an Associate of Arts degree from North Iowa Area Community College, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Iowa. She worked as a middle school and high school English teacher for more than 20 years. Hart was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Iowa's lieutenant […]
Maggie Hassan
Maggie Hassan


Margaret "Maggie" Hassan assumed office as a U.S. senator from New Hampshire in January 2017. Previously, she was governor of New Hampshire from 2013 to 2017. Hassan was born February 27, 1958, in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father, Robert Coldwell Wood, served as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the administration of Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson. Hassan earned her B.A. in history from Brown University in 1980 and a J.D. from the Northeastern School of Law in 1985. After graduating, she went into private practice and then worked […]
Karin Housley
Karin Housley


Karin Housley has served in the Minnesota Senate since 2013. She ran unsuccessfully in the special election to fill the United States Senate seat previously held by Senator Al Franken, but lost to Tina Smith, who was appointed to fill the seat after Franken's 2017 resignation. Housley was born on January 20, 1964, in South St. Paul, Minnesota. She received a Bachelor of Arts in communication studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1988. After college, she worked as a television news producer and eventually hosted […]
Cindy Hyde-Smith
Cindy Hyde-Smith


Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed on April 9, 2018, to fill the U.S. Senate seat for Mississippi vacated by Thad Cochran, who resigned for health reasons. Hyde-Smith is the first women to represent Mississippi in Congress. She also won the 2018 special election for the remainder of Cochran's term, and in 2020 was elected for a full term. Hyde-Smith was born on born May 10, 1959, in Brookhaven, Mississippi. She is a graduate of Copiah-Lincoln Community College and the University of Southern Mississippi. Prior to her appointment to the U.S. Senate, […]
Pramila Jayapal
Pramila Jayapal


Pramila Jayapal assumed office in the U.S. House of Representatives for Washington's 7th congressional district in January 2017. She is the first woman elected to Washington's 7th Congressional District, the first person of color elected to the Washington State Democratic delegation, and the first Indian American woman in Congress. Jayapal was born on September 21, 1965 in Chennai, India and raised in Indonesia and Singapore. She came to the United States in 1982 to attend college, earning a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University and an MBA from Northwestern University. She […]
Lynn Jenkins
Lynn Jenkins


Lynn Jenkins represented the 2nd District of Kansas in the United States House of Representatives from 2009 to 2019. Jenkins was born June 10, 1963, in Holton, Kansas. She completed a degree in accounting, with a minor in economics, from Kansas State University and Weber State College. Jenkins served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1998 to 2000, the Kansas State Senate from 2000 to 2002, and served as the 37th Kansas state treasurer from 2003 to 2008. For information on Jenkin's policy subject areas, committee appointments and sponsored/co-sponsored […]