Blanche Lincoln - U.S. Senate Career

U.S. Senate Career

In 1998, Lincoln returned to politics and ran for the Senate seat being vacated by incumbent Senator Dale Bumpers. She defeated her Republican opponent, Fay Boozman (1946–2005), a state senator and the brother of future U.S. Representative John Boozman, 385,878 (55.1 percent) to 295,870 (42.2 percent).

Lincoln served on the Senate Finance Committee; Special Committee on Aging; Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; Senate Social Security Task Force; Rural Health Caucus; Senate New Democrat Coalition and chair of the Rural Outreach for the Senate Democratic Caucus.

Lincoln made history again on September 9, 2009, when she was tapped as Chairman of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. In the Committee’s 184-year history, she is the first Arkansan and the first woman to serve as Chairman.

Lincoln concentrated primarily on issues involving farmers and rural issues. She is one of the primary advocates of the Delta Regional Authority, which is designed to spur development in the lower Mississippi Delta region.

Lincoln served as Arkansas's Senior Senator since 2003, serving with fellow Arkansan Mark Pryor who defeated Senator Tim Hutchinson. In 2004, Lincoln was re-elected, beating Republican State Senator Jim Holt (R-Springdale) 56%-44%, even as President Bush carried the state with 54% of the vote.

In 2004, Lincoln co-founded the Senate Hunger Caucus. The caucus was established to provide a bi-partisan forum for Senators and staff to discuss, advance and engage the Senate's work on national and international hunger and food insecurity issues.

Lincoln called for the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, claiming that the firing of eight federal prosecutors created a "serious breach between the Justice Department and Congress, a breach that I'm not sure can be repaired with Mr. Gonzales at the helm." She and her Senate colleague, Mark Pryor, were particularly upset that Gonzales reneged on a promise to have a replacement for Bud Cummins, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, go through Senate confirmation. Gonzales ultimately did resign, in August 2007.

In 2007, Lincoln played a key role in brokering the compromise that led to passage of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008. Also known as the “farm bill,” this legislation provides resources for nutrition, conservation, rural development, and renewable energy. Lincoln led the charge against defeating an amendment to the pending Farm Bill which would have capped government Agricultural subsidy payments at $250,000 per year, per farm. According to Lincoln, it was unfair to some farmers in her state, notably cotton growers. Even though the amendment passed (56-43), Lincoln threatened a filibuster if any amendment did not get a 60-vote majority, so the amendment was withdrawn after passage.

Lincoln also helped form the Moderate Dems Working Group, a coalition of moderate Senate Democrats whose stated goal is to work with Senate leadership and the administration toward finding bipartisan solutions to controversial political issues. In addition, she co-founded and currently co-chairs Third Way, a moderate think-tank whose self-described goals are "an economic agenda that is focused on growth and middle class success; a culture of shared values; a national security approach that is both tough and smart; and a clean energy revolution."

In September 2009, Lincoln pledged to filibuster any legislation containing a Public health insurance option, such as the Affordable Health Care for America Act (the Democrat-controlled, House of Representatives' preferred health care reform bill). This move came as a surprise to liberal Democrats, who largely interpreted the move as a betrayal of traditional Democratic values. Lincoln voted in favor of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Senate bill that eventually became the Barack Obama administration's health care reform law. However, she voted against the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, a package of amendments to the Affordable Care Act -- passed via reconciliation process, to circumvent united Republican attempts to block the bill's passage -- in the Senate. This was yet another policy position that Lincoln appeared to taking as part of a pragmatic strategy to position herself as a high-profile, "conservative Democrat", to avoid being perceived as a "liberal" by an Arkansas voting public that had turned extremely conservative in recent years. Appearing to support any public policy that conservatives deemed "liberal" would severely hurt her chances of re-election. She also spoke out in opposition to the pro-labor union bill known as the Employee Free Choice Act; this garnering her the praise of conservative interest groups like Americans for Tax Reform, but also bitter criticisms from labor unions, who publicly threatened to discourage Arkansas' remaining Democrat-leaning voters from voting for her.

On December 9, 2010 Lincoln missed a critical vote to repeal Don't ask, don't tell after a dental appointment and missed voting by three minutes. A supporter of the bill, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), told reporters: "She was very frustrated and apologized to both of us." She claims she would have voted for repeal had she made the vote. This third instance of Lincoln voting against her own political party on a nationally-known piece of legislation increased charges from some quarters that she was a "DINO: Democrat In Name, Only", and left-wing interest groups (including some bloggers) made it their mission to find an Arkansas Democrat they could run against her, in an attempt to defeat Lincoln in the 2010 Democratic primary election.

Lincoln opposes bringing Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States for trial.

In the end, Lincoln's re-election strategy of depicting herself to Arkansas voters as 'independent' of the Democrats (who, ironically, pursued a mostly-moderate legislative agenda, that term) failed to win her re-election in 2010. Arkansas Democrats generally viewed her as a traitor to their interests, and left-leaning special interest groups (e.g., MoveOn.org and Firedoglake) forced Lincoln's campaign resources and time to be diverted into a bruising, spring re-nomination campaign to avoid being "primaried" by her own party. This left her less capable of defending herself in the fall's general election, where conservative voters still associated "Democrat" with "liberal" (regardless of her policy positions or votes). Most Democratic-leaning voters in the general election, angered by Lincoln's recent voting record, and angered further by her not losing in the primary (even though Lincoln publicly stated that a candidate like her was the Democratic Party's best chance to retain the Senate seat), refused to vote for her in the general election. As a result, despite that fact that incumbent U.S. senators win re-election about 76% of the time, Lincoln lost the 2010 general election to the Republican nominee by a whopping 21 percentage-points (58%-37%).

Her older sister is film director Mary Lambert, who directed the documentary 14 Women, which includes Lincoln herself.