Nancy Kassebaum Baker, trailblazing GOP senator who broke barriers for women in Congress, dead at 94
Nancy Kassebaum Baker co-authored a landmark 1996 health insurance law with Ted Kennedy and won Kansas re-election by huge margins twice.
TL;DR
- Former Republican Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker of Kansas died at 94.
- She was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without having a husband who previously served in Congress.
- Kassebaum Baker served three terms in the Senate, from 1978 to 1997.
- She was known as an independent-minded, moderate Republican willing to break with her party.
- A landmark 1996 health insurance law bore her name alongside Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.
- She supported an assault weapons ban and later endorsed Democrats, breaking with the Republican Party's direction.
- She married former Republican Sen. Howard Baker in 1996, the first marriage between two former senators.
- She maintained a strong connection to Kansas throughout her career.