Margaret Chase Smith was a Republican Representative Senator from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of McCarthyism in her 1950 speech, "Declaration of Conscience".
 
Smith was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party's convention. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female Senator in history.
 
In researching her I watched her announcement for the office of the Presidency, and loved how she acknowledged all the women who had come before her.  
 
“I speak as a Republican I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States Senator. I speak as an American. I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny— fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.” Quote from the McCarthy era.
 
Painting measures 10” x 8”, oil on panel.  Ships when fully dry.