Power

Reproductive Rights Advocate Jeanne Shaheen Re-Elected to U.S. Senate in New Hampshire

Shaheen, the current U.S. senator from New Hampshire, has prioritized women’s rights, LGBT equality, and health-care access throughout her campaign.

jeanne shaheen
Shaheen, the current U.S. senator from New Hampshire, has prioritized women’s rights, LGBT equality, and health-care access throughout her campaign. Wikimedia Commons

New Hampshire Democrat Jeanne Shaheen has been re-elected to the Senate. Shaheen, the incumbent, had kept a wide lead early on. Though all votes have not been counted, both NBC and ABC are projecting a strong win for her.

Shaheen had consistently led Republican Scott Brown in polls until recently, when Brown pushed ads out connecting Shaheen to President Obama, attacking both for their reactions to Ebola and ISIS.

Shaheen, the current U.S. senator from New Hampshire, has prioritized women’s rights, LGBT equality, and health-care access priorities in throughout her campaign. During her time in the Senate, she oversaw the passage of the Shaheen Amendment, which provides insurance coverage some army women’s abortions. Shaheen has been an advocate of the Violence Against Women Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, and has introduced legislation to help families pay for child care.

She was also a co-sponsor of legislation to reverse the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision.

Brown, who served three years in the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts before losing to Elizabeth Warren and then moving to New Hampshire, had tried his best to distance himself from the Republican Party’s hard-line stance on abortion, and from the anti-choice bills he has supported in the past, among them a 24-hour waiting period bill he co-sponsored while a U.S. Senator in Massachusetts, called the “Women’s Right to Know Act.”

Despite his attempts to distance himself from anti-abortion platforms, the fact is that Brown’s history is in line with Republican groups in the state and elsewhere. In 2012, Brown voted against the Paycheck Fairness Act and supported the Blunt Amendment, which would allow employers to deny contraceptive coverage for employees. Massachusetts Citizens for Life endorsed Brown during his 2012 campaign, saying that he is a “senator who votes pro-life.”