Nancy Kassebaum

In late 1977, Senator Pearson announced he would not seek re-election to a third full term. The unexpected announcement of a rare open seat immediately drew a flood of candidates into the 1978 Republican primary, including two highly respected state senators, three successful businessmen, three others and Nancy Kassebaum.[5]

At the time that she entered the race, Kassebaum was legally separated from her husband Philip but not yet divorced. She chose to use the name Nancy Landon Kassebaum to capitalize on her father's political reputation in the state.[6] She defeated eight other Republicans in the 1978 primary elections to replace retiring Republican Pearson and then defeated former Democratic Congressman Bill Roy (who narrowly lost a previous election bid to Kansas's junior senator, Bob Dole, in 1974) in the general election. For the rest of her political career, she was primarily known as Nancy Kassebaum.[7] She was re-elected to her Senate seat in 1984 and 1990 but did not seek re-election in 1996.

From the start of her Senate tenure, Kassebaum defied stereotypes,[8] voting moderate to liberal on most social issues, but conservative on federal spending and government mandates.[9] She helped lead an unsuccessful bipartisan effort to curb soaring federal deficits in the early years of the Reagan administration.[10] But she developed a reputation as a centrist broker with significant impact on key issues in both foreign policy and domestic affairs.[11] Kassebaum is known for her health care legislation, known as the Kennedy-Kassebaum Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which was co-sponsored by Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, a Democrat. She was also active in foreign policy. She expressed strong support of anti-apartheid measures against South Africa in the 1980s.[12]

Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen and Nancy Kassebaum answer a reporter's question during a joint press briefing in 1997.

In 1981, Kassebaum became chair of the Senate Subcommittee on African Affairs and entered the growing controversy surrounding the policy of apartheid — racial segregation and discrimination — in South Africa. She issued a public call for President Reagan and other Republicans to toughen U.S. policy toward the white minority government in Pretoria.

Although President Reagan condemned apartheid, he strongly opposed economic sanctions despite growing pressure from Congress, including Kassebaum[13] and Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. To break the impasse, the two senators joined key Democrats in supporting targeted sanctions against the South African government, setting specific anti-apartheid goals and conditions, including a demand that South Africa release ANC leader Nelson Mandela from prison.[14]

The bipartisan legislation, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986,[15] passed the House and Senate by overwhelming margins but was then vetoed by President Reagan, forcing Kassebaum and Lugar into a major battle against the president and leadership of their own party.[16] On September 29, 1986, the House voted 315-to-84 to override Reagan’s veto. The Senate followed suit three days later and on a 78-to-21 vote passed the bipartisan sanctions bill into law.[17]

In March 1982, Kassebaum headed a U.S. delegation[18] to observe national elections in El Salvador, where the U.S.-backed military junta was battling leftist guerrillas while being unable to control human rights abuses by government forces and far-right paramilitary groups.[19] The heavy turnout on Election Day convinced Kassebaum that the leftists lacked popular support.[20]

Kassebaum became a key member of bipartisan efforts to support the Salvadoran government with economic and military aid, while pressuring the government on human rights, land reforms[21] and more effective steps to prevent a guerrilla victory.[22] She repeatedly urged the Reagan administration to set a clear policy for a political solution[23][24][25] to the civil war while avoiding deeper U.S. military involvement in the region.[26]

When Republicans won control of Congress in the 1994 elections, Kassebaum became chair of the Senate Labor Committee with broad jurisdiction over federal domestic policy. One of her first actions was to introduce health insurance reform legislation,[27] cosponsored by the committee’s senior Democrat, Sen. Ted Kennedy. The bill focused narrowly on helping some 25 million workers get and keep health insurance coverage regardless of pre-existing conditions even when changing or losing a job.[28][29]

In a year of heated debate, Kassebaum found herself at times opposing amendments from fellow Republicans, including her Kansas colleague, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole[30] and pressuring Kennedy and Democrats to reach compromises.[31] As a result, House and Senate conferees ultimately settled on a final version of the legislation, known as the Kassebaum-Kennedy Act or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The legislation passed overwhelmingly in both houses and was signed into law by President Clinton, on August 21, 1996.[32]

In her last months in the Senate, Kassebaum also won passage of a new law preserving a beautiful tract of Kansas tallgrass prairie in the national park system. After more than 50 years of controversy,[33] the idea of a Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve became a reality just two months before Kassebaum left office. The new preserve covers 10,876 acres in the heart of the Flint Hills with its native limestone house, barn and school. Under Kassebaum’s bill, signed into law by President Clinton, the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve is the only NPS unit dedicated to preserving and providing public access to untamed tallgrass prairie that once covered more than 400,000 square miles of the American heartland.[34][35][36]

Early in her career, she was tapped to serve as Temporary Chairman of the 1980 Republican National Convention. Presiding over the first two days of the convention, her appointment to that role was seen by many as a nod from the Reagan campaign to the moderate and liberal wings of the party. In 1991, Kassebaum was mentioned by Time magazine as a possible running mate for President George H. W. Bush if Vice President Dan Quayle was not the Republican vice-presidential candidate in the 1992 U.S. presidential election.[37]

Kassebaum voted for the successful Supreme Court nominations of Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, David H. Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. She voted for the nomination of Robert Bork, which was rejected by the Senate. Kassebaum later expressed regret for voting to confirm Thomas to the Supreme Court in 1991, expressing disappointment in his performance.[38] The year after the hearings, she noted, "I was never once asked by anyone at the White House or by any of my colleagues about how I reacted to Anita Hill's public allegations of sexual harassment or how I thought the allegations should be handled."[39]

Kassebaum voted against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed Congress and the states to ban or restrict abortions.[40]

Kassebaum voted in favor of the bill establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday and the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987 (as well as to override President Reagan's veto).[41][42][43]

Prior to completing her third term, on December 7, 1996, Kassebaum married former Tennessee Senator Howard H. Baker Jr., who retired from the Senate after serving three terms in 1985, and included terms as both majority and minority leader.[44]