Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor's daughter who became the first woman elected to the US Senate without following a spouse into office, has died. She was 94.
Kassebaum Baker died on Friday of natural causes, according to her son, Bill Kassebaum. She served Kansas in the US Senate for 18 years, from 1978 to 1997.
A Lifelong Commitment to Kansas and Public Service
Bill Kassebaum told the Associated Press that his mother loved Kansas and its people. “She was an independent-minded Republican who was willing to stand up for what she thought was right, even if that meant going against the party,” he said.
Her father, Alf Landon, was the Republican presidential nominee in 1936, losing to Franklin D. Roosevelt. Kassebaum Baker shared his progressive Republican politics, a trait that endeared her to voters across the political spectrum.
After leaving the Senate in 1997, she continued to take on public service roles. In 1996, she married former US senator Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, who died in 2014.
Legislative Achievements and National Recognition
Kassebaum Baker worked effectively with Senate colleagues of all political philosophies. A 1996 health insurance law bore her name, alongside that of liberal Democratic senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. That law, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), remains a cornerstone of US health policy.
Her election to the Senate brought immediate national attention. When she announced her retirement, she was among eight women senators and the only one to chair a Senate committee, the labor and human resources panel.
She was also part of a dwindling bloc of moderate-to-liberal Republicans. For instance, she supported a ban on assault weapons championed by Democratic president Bill Clinton.
A Moderate Voice in a Changing Party
Despite her moderate stances, Kassebaum Baker never polarized Kansas conservatives as other GOP moderates did. She connected with voters because she never seemed caught up in the trappings of power. When she retired, she acknowledged: “I'd rather cuddle up and do needlepoint all day.”
In her later years, she broke with the Republican party as it grew more conservative. She endorsed Democratic candidates for Kansas governor and US senator, including Democratic governor Laura Kelly, elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022. Kelly's 2022 Republican opponent, then state attorney general Derek Schmidt, had worked on Kassebaum Baker's Senate staff.
In 2021, Kassebaum Baker declared that Donald Trump should be impeached after supporters attacked the US Capitol, hoping to stop congressional certification of Joe Biden's 2020 election victory. “This just has gone too far,” she told Kansas City's KMBC news station.
Kassebaum Baker's death marks the passing of a pioneering figure in American politics, remembered for her independence and dedication to Kansas.
