Shaheen, Jeanne, 1947-

Cynthia Jeanne Shaheen (née Bowers, born January 28, 1947) is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from New Hampshire since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first female U.S. senator in New Hampshire's history, the first elected female governor of New Hampshire and the first woman elected as both a governor and a U.S. senator, with the junior senator from New Hampshire and former governor of the state Maggie Hassan being the second woman to have occupied both of those roles.

Born in St. Charles, Missouri and raised in Sikeston, Missouri, Shaheen attended Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelor's degree in English, and the University of Mississippi, wshere she earned a master's degree in political science. A teacher and businesswoman, she served two terms in the New Hampshire Senate from 1992 to 1996. Shaheen was elected governor in 1996 and reelected in 1998 and 2000. In 2002, she ran for the United States Senate unsuccessfully against Republican nominee John E. Sununu. She served as Director of the Harvard Institute of Politics before resigning to run for the U.S. Senate again in the 2008 election, defeating Sununu in a rematch. She is the dean of New Hampshire's congressional delegation, serving in Congress since 2009.

Shaheen became the first Democratic senator from New Hampshire since John A. Durkin, who was defeated in 1980. In 2014, she became the second Democrat from New Hampshire to be reelected to the U.S. Senate and the first since Thomas J. McIntyre in 1972. She was reelected to a third term in 2020 over Republican Corky Messner.