Mary Louise Smith (politician)

Smith with US President Gerald Ford in 1974

Mary Louise Smith (born October 6, 1914 in Eddyville as Mary Louise Epperson, † August 22, 1997 in Des Moines ) was an American politician and suffragette. From 1974 to 1977 she was President of the Republicans, the second woman in history, after Jean Westwood , to chair one of the two major political parties in the United States.

Life and political career

Mary Louise Smith studied social work at the University of Iowa in her native Iowa . She graduated in 1935 with a Bachelor of Arts . After graduation, she worked as a clerk for the Iowa Employment Relief Administration in Iowa City . In 1936, however, she left this position again to start a family with her husband Elmer M. Smith, whom she met during her studies and married in 1934. The couple had three children together: Robert (* 1937), Margaret (* 1939) and James (* 1942).

After the family moved to Eagle Grove , Smith became active in politics and the Republican Party. In 1961 she was appointed membership chair of the Iowa Council for Republican Women. The following year she was elected vice chairman of the Republican Central Committee for Wright County . In 1964 she was elected to represent Iowa on the Republican National Committee (RNC), the national organizing body of the Republican Party. She held this post for 20 years in a row.

Immediately after the Watergate Affair became known and President Richard Nixon's resignation , his vice-president and successor, Gerald Ford , appointed Mary Louise Smith as the first female chairman of the Republican National Committee in September 1974. Smith held this post until January 15, 1977. She organized the nomination and election campaign events for the Republicans in the wake of the 1976 presidential election , in which the Republicans suffered heavy losses in the wake of the Watergate scandal. In 1978 she supported Robert D. Ray in the campaign for his successful fourth re-election as governor of Iowa.

She later supported the election campaign of George Bush in the primaries of the presidential election in 1980. After Ronald Reagan had prevailed as a candidate, she supported him in the presidential election in 1980 and in the presidential election in 1984 . Reagan appointed Smith Vice Chairman of the United States Commission on Civil Rights in 1981 , but did not reappoint her in 1984. While Smith took a socially liberal political position, the Republican Party as a whole had oriented itself more towards the political right . Disappointed with this change of direction, Smith resigned from the RNC in 1984 and joined the Republican Mainstream Committee . This pursued a social liberal agenda within the party and advocated civil and women's rights. Smith campaigned for the Equal Rights Amendment , which ultimately did not find sufficient support in her party, as well as for Pro-Choice and Planned Parenthood , initiatives for the reproductive rights of women. Smith was one of the co-founders and founders of the Iowa Women's Archives, part of the University of Iowa library, which opened in 1992.

In 1991, President George Bush appointed her to the board of directors of the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), founded in 1984 . Influenced by the experiences of her husband, who was a doctor in the Vietnam War , Smith had actively sought the establishment of such a federal institution for the research and prevention of violent conflict. Smith remained active for the USIP until her death.

Smith died of lung cancer in Des Moines, Iowa, aged 82.

Honors

• In 1977, Smith was inducted into the Iowa Women's Hall of Fame .
• In 1995, Iowa State University established the Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics in her honor.

literature

• Suzanne O'Dea: Madame Chairman: Mary Louise Smith and the Republican Revival After Watergate , University of Missouri Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0826219954 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Lynne E. Ford: Encyclopedia of Women and American Politics . Infobase Publishing, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4381-1032-5 , pp. 420 .
2. ↑ Dianne G. Bystrom, Barbara Burrell (ed.): Women in the American Political System: An Encyclopedia of Women as Voters, Candidates, and Office Holders . ABC-CLIO, 2018, ISBN 978-1-61069-974-7 , pp. 490 .

Web links

• Archive link: Mary Louise Smith Chair in Women and Politics (en)
• List of sponsors of the Mary Louise Smith Chair (s)
• Mary Louise Smith , Biography in the Iowa Women's Archives, University of Iowa (en)