Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Expertise: Agriculture, Trade, Telecommunications, Energy & Environment, Health Care, Taxes, Public Relations & Media

On November 3, 1998, Senator Blanche L. Lincoln made history when she became the youngest woman ever elected to the United States Senate at the age of 38 — a milestone that still exists today.  She made history again on September 9, 2009 when she became the first female ever to serve as Chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee.   

 During her 16-year career in the U.S. Congress — first as a two-term member of the House of Representatives and then as a two-term member of the U.S. Senate — Lincoln built a reputation as a results-oriented, bipartisan legislator.  She served on several Committees in Congress, including the House Agriculture Committee, the House Energy & Commerce Committee, the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry Committee, the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Special Committee on Aging, and the Senate Finance Committee. She continues to be recognized as a national leader in the areas of agriculture, anti-hunger, aging, health care, international trade, taxes, and energy policy.        

 As one of the Finance Committee’s top-ranking Democrats, Lincoln was named the first woman Democratic Senator to lead a Finance Committee Subcommittee.  During her time on the Finance Committee, she went on to Chair two Subcommittees and helped develop and pass legislation reducing taxes, improving health care, and expanding trade.  

 As a senior member of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee, Senator Lincoln worked to produce bipartisan legislation, improving energy efficiency and enhancing domestic energy supplies — including, nuclear and renewable sources.   

 In her fight against hunger, she founded the Senate Hunger Caucus and used her Chairmanship of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee to author and enact the largest investment in child nutrition programs in history.  The new law was deficit neutral, established nutritional standards for school lunches for the first time, received strong bipartisan support, and was signed into law by President Barack Obama.  

 As a farmer’s daughter, she became known as a champion of production agriculture who fought to ensure that producers were able to continue to provide the safest, most abundant, and affordable supply of food to meet the global needs of the 21st century.  

Today, she is the Founder and a Principal of Lincoln Policy Group, a consulting firm that assist its clients in successfully navigating the legislative and regulatory bureaucracies of the federal government.  

Senator Lincoln is a native of Helena, Arkansas.  She received a bachelor’s degree from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia.