CARNAHAN, Jean

Jean Carnahan, the former first lady of Missouri, was appointed to the United States Senate to fill the vacant seat from Missouri caused by the death of her husband of 46 years, Mel E. Carnahan. Elected to Congress three weeks after his death in a plane crash, Mel Carnahan became the first U.S. Senator elected posthumously. Despite having never held public office, Jean Carnahan earned the distinction of being the first woman Senator from Missouri.

Jean Carpenter was born on December 20, 1933, in Washington, DC. The daughter of Reginald Carpenter, a plumber, and Alvina Carpenter, a hairdresser, Jean was just 15 when she met her future husband, Mel Carnahan, the son of Missouri Congressman Albert Sidney Johnston Carnahan. Both Mel and Jean attended Anacostia High School in Washington, DC, where they sat next to each other in class. In 1951 Jean became the first in her family to graduate from high school.¹ Two years later, Mel and Jean married upon Mel’s graduation from college. Jean soon followed suit, earning a BA in business and public administration from George Washington University in 1955. The couple went on to have four children: Roger, Russ, Robin, and Tom. In addition to her responsibilities as a homemaker and mother, Jean Carnahan was a public speaker and an author. She also played an active role in her husband’s numerous political campaigns for state office, writing speeches and creating an extensive card-catalogued database of potential supporters and donors.²

When Mel Carnahan became governor of Missouri in 1993, his wife flourished in her role as first lady. Interested in addressing the needs of children, Jean Carnahan helped to implement mandatory child immunization, organized projects to promote children’s increased exposure to culture and art, and cofounded Children in the Workplace to create childcare for working parents at their place of employment.³

During his second term as Missouri governor, Mel Carnahan decided to challenge Republican incumbent John David Ashcroft for his seat in the U.S. Senate. On October 16, 2000, Carnahan, his son Roger, and a legislative aide perished when their private plane crashed en route to a campaign rally in New Madrid, a town about 150 miles south of St. Louis.⁴ Despite the governor’s death, his name remained on the ballot due to Missouri state law that prohibited any changes within a month of the election date.⁵ Out of respect for the Carnahans, Ashcroft ceased his campaign efforts for 10 days after the tragedy.

Political observers assumed Ashcroft would win by default; however, momentum shifted to the Democratic candidate in the days preceding the general election. “Don’t let the fire go out,” became the rallying cry for Missouri voters, who grew even more enthused about Carnahan’s candidacy once his widow Jean made it known that she would accept an appointment to take his place in the Senate.⁶ Still reeling from the death of her husband and son, Jean Carnahan recalled her reaction when Missouri’s new governor, Roger Wilson, approached her with the prospect of serving in Congress. “I almost felt as if my world had come to an end,” she said. “But I didn’t want all the things that Mel stood for, that we had worked together for, I didn’t want those things to die. I didn’t want to feel like I was letting myself down or him down. And the people of Missouri wanted something to survive the plane crash, as well.”⁷ In the November election Mel Carnahan posthumously defeated incumbent Senator John Ashcroft by 48,960 votes out of a total of about 2.4 million. Elated with the victory, Jean Carnahan vowed that “we will never let the fire go out”—a tribute to her late husband’s political legacy.⁸

Appointed for two years to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy, Jean Carnahan was sworn in on January 3, 2001, taking the Senate seat once held by Harry S. Truman. In the Senate, Carnahan served on several committees: Armed Services; Small Business and Entrepreneurship; Governmental Affairs; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; and the Special Committee on Aging. Admitting that her jump to the Senate was overwhelming at times, Carnahan observed, “I’ve learned a lot. I’m not so lost anymore. But there’s a lot I’ve still got to learn. Some issues I can’t talk to you about yet because I don’t know them yet. But I’m learning. I’m learning. And I’m enjoying myself.”⁹

During her first few months in Congress, Carnahan earned the respect of strangers and colleagues alike. She recollected that on one occasion, Senator Edward Moore (Ted) Kennedy of Massachusetts gave her a copy of John F. Kennedy’s book Profiles in Courage with the inscription, “To Jean Carnahan, who has written some profiles in courage herself.”¹⁰

Building on her experience as first lady of Missouri, Carnahan sought to continue the legislative interests she shared with her late husband, most especially with respect to furthering opportunities for children. The first legislation she introduced in the Senate was a measure to increase funding in public schools to help reduce class sizes, hire additional teachers, and build or renovate classrooms. In a speech on the Senate Floor, Carnahan called the education of children, “an issue that is close to my heart and one that is essential to our nation’s future.” She also explained that her desire to improve American schools derived in part from her husband’s dedication to the issue and their shared belief that local schools should be given more flexibility on how to spend federal money to improve education.¹¹ In May 2001, Carnahan achieved an early legislative victory when her bill passed the Senate as an amendment to an education reform measure.¹² During her short tenure in the Senate, Carnahan also worked to provide federal workers with greater access to childcare services, another carryover from her time as Missouri’s first lady.

As a Senator, Carnahan emphasized her moderate stance on the issues and desire to work with colleagues on both sides of the aisle. In 2001 she was one of 12 Democratic Senators to back President George W. Bush’s tax cut. Although she voted in favor of the program, she later commented, “The bill passed by the Senate is far from ideal, however. In particular, I would have liked to have seen a greater portion of its benefits go to middle-income working class families.”¹³ Carnahan also worked to find common ground with fellow Missouri Senator Republican Christopher Samuel (Kit) Bond. Both supported a bill to provide assistance for farmers, and the two Senators worked to protect the jobs of more than 10,000 Trans World Airlines (TWA) employees in Missouri when the airline merged with American Airlines.¹⁴

A year after her appointment to the Senate, Carnahan announced her decision to run in the November 2002 special election to complete the six-year term. During her first year on the Hill, GOP leaders from Missouri avoided overly criticizing Carnahan, even when angered by actions such as her vote against John Ashcroft’s appointment for U.S. Attorney General, a decision Carnahan said was “a vote of conscience.”¹⁵ Still wary of a potential backlash resulting from the perception of attacking a grieving widow, Republicans focused on Carnahan’s lack of experience when she entered the senatorial election. The closely contested race between Carnahan and her Republican opponent, former U.S. Representative James Matthes Talent, attracted national attention from both parties. During the campaign, Carnahan attempted to distance herself from her husband’s accident and instead highlighted her accomplishments in the Senate.¹⁶ Ultimately defeated in a close race in which she earned 48 percent of the vote, Carnahan told her supporters after conceding to Talent, “Ours is a cause that has not been lessened by defeat. Others will come to pick up the fallen torch.”¹⁷ Carnahan left office on November 25, 2002, when her successor was sworn-in.

Since leaving Congress, Carnahan has remained active in Democratic politics, in particular promoting the candidacy of women. She also has devoted herself to her children’s political futures. From 2005 to 2013, her son, Russ Carnahan, served in the U.S. House of Representatives from Missouri.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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