2026年8月22日 / 美国东部时间下午1:40 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/美联社
前堪萨斯州联邦参议员南希·卡塞鲍姆·贝克去世，其子比尔·卡塞鲍姆周六对哥伦比亚广播公司新闻表示，她享年94岁。她是堪萨斯州一位州长的女儿，也是首位无需凭借配偶政治背景就当选联邦参议员的女性。
比尔·卡塞鲍姆表示，他的母亲“是一个独立的声音，愿意为堪萨斯州和国家做正确的事”，他说，这有时意味着要与自己所在的政党背道而驰。
“她也愿意与选民沟通，即便他们与自己意见相左，并公开讨论自己的投票记录和立场，”他补充道，尽管人们可能不同意她的观点，但会欣赏她愿意坦诚交流的态度。
卡塞鲍姆·贝克于1978年当选联邦参议员，任职三届。她谦逊的作风深受各政治派别的选民喜爱，尽管她与父亲阿尔夫·兰登州长持有温和、进步的共和党政治立场——兰登州长是1936年共和党总统候选人，最终竞选失败。即便在1997年初卸任参议员后，她仍继续投身公共服务工作。
她于1996年与田纳西州前联邦参议员霍华德·贝克结婚，后者于2014年去世。
（左起）南希·卡塞鲍姆、保罗·拉克萨尔特参议员和忙于拍照的摄影爱好者霍华德·贝克，1984年共和党全国代表大会。史蒂夫·诺思普/盖蒂图片社
卡塞鲍姆·贝克总体上仍是堪萨斯州民众的偶像。她能够与持有各种政治理念的参议院同僚合作，1996年出台的一项医疗保险法案就以她和马萨诸塞州自由派联邦参议员特德·肯尼迪的名字共同命名。
她的参议员选举为她带来了全国性的关注。当她宣布退休时，她是当时八位女性参议员之一，也是唯一一位担任参议院委员会主席的人，即劳工与人力资源委员会主席。
她还属于当时日益减少的温和派至自由派共和党人阵营，例如，她曾支持民主党总统比尔·克林顿倡导的攻击性武器禁令。
但她从未像其他共和党温和派那样分化堪萨斯州的保守派选民。她与选民建立联系的原因在于，她似乎从未沉迷于权力的浮华，退休时她坦言：“我宁愿整天蜷缩起来做刺绣。”
她于1932年7月29日出生，当时她的父亲——一位来自独立城的石油商人——正在竞选他两任州长中的第一任。她于20世纪50年代中期在堪萨斯大学获得政治学学位，并在密歇根大学获得外交史硕士学位。
南希·卡塞鲍姆·贝克与父亲阿尔夫·兰登在他位于堪萨斯州托皮卡的家中，1978年8月16日。UPI/贝特曼档案/盖蒂图片社
她曾是电台高管，20世纪70年代曾在堪萨斯州联邦参议员詹姆斯·皮尔逊的团队工作过一年，并曾在威奇托郊区梅兹的学区委员会任职。她与第一任丈夫菲尔·卡塞鲍姆育有四个孩子，其中包括曾在堪萨斯州众议院任职一届的比尔。两人于1979年离婚。
当卡塞鲍姆·贝克决定竞选联邦参议员时，她认为“一个有着与男性不同背景的女性可能会吸引那些厌倦政坛的民众”。当时的专家估计，一场参议院竞选需要花费当时在堪萨斯州来说数额巨大的100万美元。1978年第一季度，她的竞选开支不到1.2万美元，当时她认为自己“处于最底层”。
然而，初选阵营中有九名候选人，其中包括三位州参议员和一位知名的威奇托商人。卡塞鲍姆·贝克以不到31%的选票赢得共和党提名。
她以南希·兰登·卡塞鲍姆的身份参选，当年11月以近54%的得票率击败了曾任两届民主党众议员的比尔·罗伊。
仅仅数月后，她的温和派政治立场就显现出来：她拒绝支持一项要求联邦预算平衡的宪法修正案。
“我们应该对看似简单的解决方案保持警惕，”她说。
她的父亲于1987年去世，享年100岁，在她任职初期仍有着深远的政治影响力。尽管他在1936年总统大选中以压倒性劣势输给了民主党现任总统富兰克林·罗斯福，但后来成为了共和党的资深 statesman。堪萨斯州立大学以他命名的讲座系列吸引了多位总统和外国领导人。
南希·卡塞鲍姆·贝克，1998年。道格拉斯·格雷厄姆/盖蒂图片社
卡塞鲍姆·贝克的支持率在此期间进一步攀升。她在1984年以76%的得票率连任，1990年又以74%的得票率再次当选。
但尽管她深受欢迎，却令保守派活动人士感到沮丧。她表示，自己投票支持攻击性武器禁令引发了她从政生涯中最激烈的邮件抨击。
她曾考虑不寻求第三任期，但共和党领导人劝说她再参选一次。1996年，当她决定不寻求连任时，她表示将回到堪萨斯州风景秀丽的弗林特山的牧场和有90年历史的农舍，照看她的孙辈——她有七个孙辈和两个曾孙。
当有人短暂提议在托皮卡以她的名字命名一条新公路时，她说：“哦，天哪。绝对不行——不要。”
她和贝克的恋情一直很低调，直到1996年中期《华盛顿邮报》的一篇报道才传出两人可能结婚的猜测。他们于当年12月结婚。
这是首位均曾担任过联邦参议员的男性和女性结婚。贝克曾连任三届参议员，1967年至1985年任职，之后成为罗纳德·里根总统的白宫办公厅主任。他的第一任妻子乔伊在与癌症长期抗争后于1993年去世。
婚后，公共服务工作仍在召唤她，包括在克林顿时期加入两党竞选资金改革委员会，以及2004年至2005年加入英国的非洲问题委员会。
南希·卡塞鲍姆·贝克，2015年出席堪萨斯州博览会。马克·莱因斯坦/考比斯图片社/盖蒂图片社
2001年，乔治·W·布什总统任命她的丈夫为美国驻日本大使，她陪同丈夫度过了四年的驻外任期。贝克表示，她在这个亚洲国家成为了一位重要人物。
在前往东京之前，她告诉一名记者，她将在日本的任期视为一次冒险，但补充道：“我只能说，我会想念堪萨斯的大草原。”
晚年，随着共和党日益保守，卡塞鲍姆·贝克与该党分道扬镳，为堪萨斯州州长和联邦参议员职位的民主党候选人背书，包括两次都支持民主党州长劳拉·凯利——尽管凯利2022年的共和党对手、时任州检察长德里克·施密特曾在她的参议院团队工作过。
2021年，在特朗普支持者袭击美国国会大厦、企图阻止国会认证民主党人乔·拜登击败特朗普的选举结果后，她宣称特朗普应该被弹劾。
“这已经做得太过分了，”她告诉堪萨斯城的KMBC电视台。
Nancy Kassebaum Baker, former U.S. senator from Kansas, dies at 94
August 22, 2026 / 1:40 PM EDT / CBS/AP
Nancy Kassebaum Baker, a Kansas governor’s daughter who became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate without following a spouse into office, has died, her son Bill Kassebaum told CBS News on Saturday. She was 94.
Kassebaum Baker died Friday, he said.
Bill Kassebaum told CBS News that his mother was “an independent voice that was willing to do what was right for Kansas and the country,” which he said sometimes meant going against her party.
“She was also willing to talk to her constituents, even when they didn’t agree, and openly discuss her votes and stances,” he said, adding that while people may not have agreed with her, they appreciated her willingness to talk.
Kassebaum Baker was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1978 and served three terms. Her modest demeanor endeared her to voters of all political stripes, though she shared the moderate, progressive Republican politics of her father, Gov. Alf Landon, the unsuccessful 1936 GOP nominee for president. Even after leaving the Senate early in 1997, she continued taking on public service roles.
She married former Sen. Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, in 1996. He died in 2014.
(L-R) Sens. Nancy Kassebaum, Paul Laxalt & camera-busy photography buff Howard Baker, at the 1984 Republican National Convention. Steve Northup / Getty Images
Kassebaum Baker remained an icon for Kansans generally. She could work with Senate colleagues of all political philosophies, and a 1996 health insurance law bore her name, along with that of liberal Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Her election to the Senate brought her immediate national attention. When she announced her retirement, she was among eight women senators and the only one to chair a Senate committee, the Labor and Human Resources panel.
She was also in a dwindling bloc of moderate-to-liberal Republicans, having supported, for example, a ban on assault weapons championed by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.
Yet she never polarized Kansas conservatives as other GOP moderates did. She connected with voters because she never seemed caught up in the trappings of power, and when she retired, she acknowledged, “I’d rather cuddle up and do needlepoint all day.”
She was born on July 29, 1932, as her father, an oilman from Independence, was running for the first of his two terms as governor. She earned a political science degree from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in diplomatic history from the University of Michigan in the mid-1950s.
Nancy Kassebaum Baker with her father Alf Landon at his home in Topeka, Kansas, August 16th 1978. UPI / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
She was a radio-station executive, spent a year in the 1970s on the staff of Kansas Sen. James Pearson and served on the school board in the Wichita suburb of Maize. She had four children with her first husband, Phil Kassebaum, including Bill, who served a term in the Kansas House. The marriage ended in divorce in 1979.
When Kassebaum Baker decided to run for the U.S. Senate, she figured that “a woman with a background different from a man might be appealing” to people growing weary of politics. Pundits at the time estimated a Senate race would require the then-huge-for-Kansas sum of $1 million. In the first quarter of 1978, she spent less than $12,000 on her campaign, and saw herself “at the bottom of the totem pole.”
However, nine candidates crowded the primary field, including three state senators and a prominent Wichita businessman. Kassebaum Baker won the GOP nomination with less than 31% of the vote.
Running as Nancy Landon Kassebaum, she won almost 54% of the vote that November against former two-term Democratic congressman Bill Roy.
Her moderate politics quickly came to the fore when only months later, she refused to endorse an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget.
“We should be wary of the seemingly simple solution,” she said.
Her father, who would die at age 100 in 1987, still cast a long political shadow during her first years in office. Though he’d overwhelmingly lost the 1936 presidential race to Democratic incumbent Franklin Roosevelt, he later became an elder statesman for the party. A lecture series named for him at Kansas State University attracted presidents and foreign leaders.
Nancy Kassebaum Baker in 1998. Douglas Graham/Getty Images
Kassebaum Baker became even more popular in her time. She won re-election in 1984 with 76% of the vote and in 1990 with 74% of the vote.
But she frustrated conservative activists, despite her popularity. She said her vote in favor of the assault weapons ban inspired the angriest mail of her career.
She’d contemplated not seeking a third term, but Republican leaders had prevailed upon her to run one more time. In 1996, when she decided not to seek re-election, she said she would return to a ranch and 90-year-old farmhouse in Kansas’ scenic Flint Hills and babysit her grandchildren — she had seven, as well as two great-grandchildren.
When there was brief talk of naming a new highway in Topeka after her, she said, “Oh, goodness. Absolutely not — no.”
She and Baker kept their romance low-key, and speculation about a possible marriage didn’t emerge until mid-1996, in a Washington Post story. They married that December.
It was the first time a man and a woman who had both served in the Senate had wed. Baker was elected to three terms and served from 1967 to 1985 before becoming President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff. His first wife, Joy, had died in 1993 after a long battle with cancer.
After the marriage, public service still beckoned, including as a member of a bipartisan commission on campaign finance reform under Clinton and on a British commission in Africa in 2004-05.
Nancy Kassebaum Baker at the Kansas State Fair in 2015. Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images
President George W. Bush named her husband ambassador to Japan in 2001, and she went with him for the four-year posting. Baker said she became an important figure in the Asian nation.
Before she left for Tokyo, she told a reporter she saw her stint in Japan as an adventure but added, “All I can say is, I will miss the Kansas prairie.”
Later in life, Kassebaum Baker broke with the Republican Party as it became more conservative, endorsing Democratic candidates for Kansas governor and U.S. senator, including Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly both times — even though Kelly’s 2022 GOP opponent, then state Attorney General Derek Schmidt, had worked on her Senate staff.
She also declared in 2021 that President Trump should be impeached after Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, hoping to stop congressional certification of Mr. Trump’s defeat in 2020 by Democrat Joe Biden.
“This just has gone too far,” she told Kansas City’s KMBC.
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