Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker, who carved out her own place in a storied Kansas political family, has died. She was 94. Kassebaum Baker died Friday of natural causes, the AP reports. Elected in 1978, she was the first woman to represent Kansas in the US Senate and, for two years, its only female member. A moderate Republican with an independent streak, per the Kansas City Star, Kassebaum backed welfare changes and arts funding, prioritized health care, and broke with Ronald Reagan to push sanctions on apartheid-era South Africa. In 2025, Joe Biden awarded her the Presidential Citizens Medal for her public service.
The daughter of Alf Landon, a Kansas governor and 1936 GOP presidential nominee, Kassebaum served 18 years in the Senate and was known for working with Senate colleagues of all political philosophies. A 1996 health insurance law bore her name, along with that of Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, and she supported a ban on assault weapons championed by Bill Clinton. She avoided polarizing Kansas conservatives as other GOP moderates did, per the AP, and connected with voters because she never seemed caught up in the trappings of power. When Kassebaum retired, she acknowledged, "I'd rather cuddle up and do needlepoint all day."
After the 2014 death of her husband, former Tennessee Sen. Howard Baker, Kassebaum returned to the Flint Hills, per the Star. She remained politically active, endorsing Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Kamala Harris and blaming President Trump for the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. "I'm a Republican, but that doesn't mean you walk lockstep always with the party," she said in 2018. Kansas leaders from both parties praised her as a model of integrity and bipartisan cooperation. "I am not elected to be just a woman senator," Kassebaum said after first winning her seat. "I am elected to be a senator."
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