Lambert-Lincoln, Blanche, 1960-

<p>Inspired by compelling women role models, who “believed very strongly in giving back, whether it was to their community or to their church, and particularly to their family,” Blanche Lambert Lincoln pursued a life in public service. With the support of her parents, she achieved success in public life that many did not predict. “When I came home and decided to run for Congress,” Lincoln recalled later, “[my father] said, ‘Well, we’ve tried to teach you all to reach for the stars and believe in yourself and go for it.’ He said, ‘We might have done too good a job on you.’” At age 38, having served two terms in the U.S. House, she became the youngest woman ever elected to serve in the U.S. Senate, working to balance her professional and personal responsibilities and always stressing the importance of her role as mother to two small children. During her tenure in Congress, Lincoln was a proponent for farmers and working and rural families, and in 2009, she became the first woman to chair the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.</p>

<p>The youngest of four children, Blanche M. Lambert was born in Helena, Arkansas, on September 30, 1960, to Jordan Jr. and Martha Kelly Lambert. The Lamberts were sixth-generation farmers of cotton, rice, wheat, and soybeans. After attending public school, Lambert graduated with a BS in biology from Randolph-Macon Women’s College, in Lynchburg, Virginia, in 1982. In 1983 Lambert went to Washington, DC, where she worked as a staff assistant for Arkansas Democratic Congressman William Vollie (Bill) Alexander Jr. That experience cemented her lifelong appreciation for the responsibilities and challenges of governing. From 1985 until 1991, she worked for lobbying firms as a researcher.</p>

<p>In 1992 Lambert decided to challenge her old boss, Representative Alexander, for the Democratic nomination in his rural northeast Arkansas district, which included farmland along the Mississippi River as well as the city of Jonesboro. To prepare for the campaign, Lincoln attended a seminar organized by the National Women’s Political Caucus. She called it a “truth-telling” experience, where the challenges for women running for public office were bluntly stated. I was advised, “Remember, always, always, have a stick of lipstick in your pocket. Always carry an extra pair of panty hose. Always carry a fresh shirt. Because the standard is higher for you.” She ran on a lean budget, traveling the sprawling district in a pick-up truck and using connections to local chapters of Business and Professional Women as a campaign base. Lambert prevailed in the primary with 61 percent of the vote, carrying all but two of the district’s 25 counties. In the general election, she defeated a Republican real estate developer with 70 percent of the vote. In 1993 Blanche Lambert married Steve Lincoln, a pediatrician. In 1994 she was re-elected to a second term.</p>

<p>Blanche Meyers Lambert Lincoln (born September 30, 1960) is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 1999 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the Senate in 1998; she was the first woman elected to the Senate from Arkansas since Hattie Caraway in 1932 and youngest woman ever elected to the Senate at age 38. She previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Arkansas's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1997.</p>

<p>Lincoln was the first woman and the first Arkansan to serve as chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. She also served as the Chair of Rural Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus. In 2010, she ran for a third term, but was defeated in a landslide by Republican John Boozman, whose brother, Fay Boozman, she had defeated in 1998. She is the founder and a principal of Lincoln Policy Group, a consulting firm.</p>

<p>A seventh-generation Arkansan, Blanche Lambert was born in Helena, Phillips County, the daughter of Martha (née Kelly) and Jordan Bennett Lambert. Her father was a rice and cotton farmer. Her older sister, Mary Lambert, is a film director. She received her early education at the local public schools in Helena, and was the student council president at Central High School from 1977 to 1978.</p>