• Office Sought: Senator, New Hampshire
• Birth Date: Jan. 28, 1947
• Occupation: Politician
• Web site: http://www.jeanneshaheen.org

Education

• Shippensburg University, BA
• University of Mississippi, MA

Born in St. Charles, Missouri in 1947, Jeanne Shaheen currently resides in Madbury, N.H. She received a bachelor's degree from Shippensburg University and a master's degree in political science from the University of Mississippi. In 1973, she moved to New Hampshire, where she became a schoolteacher and ran a small business with her husband.

After managing the New Hampshire presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter and then Gary Hart, Shaheen's own career in elective office began in 1990, when she was elected to the state Senate. She served three two-year terms before becoming the first woman elected governor in New Hampshire in 1996.

Shaheen served three terms as governor before running unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate in 2002, losing to then- U.S. Rep. John Sununu. She later served as the director of Harvard's Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and as the national chairwoman of John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign before deciding to challenge Sununu to a rematch this year.

Shaheen and her husband, Bill, have three daughters.