Stephanie Herseth Sandlin

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (born December 3, 1970 in Aberdeen , South Dakota ) is an American politician . From 2004 to 2011 she represented the state of South Dakota in the US House of Representatives .

Origin and personal career

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin comes from a prominent political family in South Dakota. Her grandfather, Ralph Herseth, was the governor of South Dakota from 1959 to 1961 . Her paternal grandmother, Lorna B. Herseth , served as Secretary of State executive officer in South Dakota, and her father, Lars , served in the legislature for two decades and was an unsuccessful candidate in the 1986 gubernatorial election. Stephanie Herseth attended Groton High School and then Georgetown University in Washington , where she studied law until 1997. After that she worked as a lawyer.

Political rise

Stephanie Herseth became a member of the Democratic Party . In 2002 she ran for the first time for the US House of Representatives. In these elections, she was narrowly defeated by Governor Bill Janklow of the Republican Party . After he was sentenced to a 100-day prison term for negligent homicide and had to give up his office in the US Congress , Herseth was elected as his successor in a by-election with 51% of the vote against Larry Diedrich. In the regular congressional elections in 2004, she again prevailed against Diedrich with 53.4%; in the elections of 2006 and 2008 she was able to assert herself. In the 2010 elections, she was defeated by Republican Kristi Noem and left Congress in 2011.

She has served on the Agriculture, Natural Resources, Veterans Affairs, and Global Warming and Energy Committees. In the 2008 presidential election campaign, she supported the successful candidacy of Barack Obama .

Since March 31, 2007, she has been married to Max Sandlin , a former Texas Congressman . In December 2008, their son Zachary was born.

literature

• Wasniewski, Matthew Andrew: Women in Congress, 1917-2006 , Government Printing Office, 2006, ISBN 9780160767531 , p. 838

Web links

• Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)