Margaret Chase Smith made history as the first woman elected to serve in both houses of Congress when she was elected to the Senate on this day in history, Sept. 13, 1948.
Sen. Margaret Chase Smith, R-Maine, was elected to the Senate onBorn Margaret Madeline Chase on Dec. 14, 1897, in the central Maine town of Skowhegan, Smith was the oldest of George Emery and Carrie Murray Chase's six children, according to her congressional biography.
"I know of no one else who has the full knowledge of my ideas and plans or is as well qualified as she is, to carry on these ideas or my unfinished work for the district," Rep. Smith told Maine voters prior to his death on April 8, 1940. to fill her husband's vacant congressional seat for the remainder of that term. A week later, on June 17, Smith won the GOP primary for the 1940 general election, and was elected to a full term in the House of Representatives that November.
Despite the opposition from the state party, Smith won the primary in a landslide — garnering more votes than her three opponents combined. In 1950, Sen. Smith was named the"Best Tailored Woman in Government" by the Custom Tailors Guild of America. She typically wore a rose on her lapel and campaigned to make the rose the official flower of the United States.
"The American people are sick and tired of being afraid to speak their minds lest they be politically smeared as ‘communists’ or ‘fascists’ by their opponents," said Smith in the speech.
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