Margaret Chase Smith

This is a photograph of Margaret Chase at age six in 1903. She was born on December 14, 1897, and was the oldest of six kids. Her parents were George Emery Chase and Carrie Murray Chase.

Margaret’s father, George, was a barber. Her mother, Carrie, worked at a store, a shoe factory, and as a waitress. Even when things were tough, Margaret remembered how her parents kept the family together. They all lived with her grandfather, John Chase, in Skowhegan, Maine.

Margaret went to local schools in Skowhegan. She enjoyed math and was a member and captain of the girls’ basketball team. She went on her senior class trip to Washington, DC in 1912. Margaret wanted to go to college to become physical education (gym) teacher, but her family could not afford to send her.

As she grew up, Margaret worked many jobs. She worked at a five-and-dime store, helped with taxes at the town office, taught in a one-room school, worked as a telephone operator, and helped with the local newspaper. She helped start a business club for women, called the Skowhegan Business and Professional Women’s Club. In 1930, while working as a business manager at a textile mill, Margaret married Clyde H. Smith, an important local and state politician.

Margaret Chase Smith’s husband, Clyde Smith was a respected political leader in central Maine. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives from Maine’s Second Congressional District in 1936. Margaret worked with him as his office manager and helped run his campaigns until his early death in 1940.

After her husband died, Margaret Chase Smith took his place in Congress. She was re-elected three times in 1942, 1944, and 1946In 1948, she decided to run for the newly vacant U.S Senate seat and won a hard-fought Republican primary with a low budget grassroots campaign based on local needs and issues. She easily won the general election in September 1948. Margaret became the first woman to serve in both the House and the Senate.

Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was sworn into office on January 3rd, 1949. Her official Senate Certificate called her “his” instead of “her.” Just one way that the U.S. Congress failed to accommodate women legislators, treating them as outsiders. Smith took it all in stride. Certainly, this was not the first time, or the last time, that people were ill-prepared for Margaret.

Margaret Chase Smith used small notecards to draft and organize her speeches. She wrote short notes and underlined important words to help her remember what to say.
On June 1, 1950, Margaret gave a speech in the Senate called the “Declaration of Conscience.” There is no recording of the speech, so the best record we have of it are her notecards, which show her last-minute edits and points of emphasis

In her speech, she criticized the country’s leaders. She spoke out against the actions of the House Un-American Activities Committee, a group led by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy and the committee were accusing Americans of having communist ties, often without supporting evidence.

Margaret thought that the House Un-American Activities Committee was destroying the lives of good Americans. Americans who were upholding American ideals – the right to criticize; the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; and the right of independent thought.

By opposing McCarthy, Margaret showed the nation her courage and devotion to justice. At first, her speech was not well received, but it did give her national attention and remains one of her most well-known contributions to American history

On January 27, 1964, Margaret Chase Smith spoke to the Women’s National Press Club. She joked that she didn’t have enough money or a big team to help her run for the Republican presidential nomination, and that she probably wouldn’t win. She also said that people told her women shouldn’t try to become president. At the end of her speech, Smith surprised everyone by saying, “So because of these very impelling reasons against my running . . . I have decided that I shall.”

Smith wanted to run for president because she had twenty-four years of experience in Congress. She didn’t ask people for money to help her campaign. She also wouldn’t leave her job in the Senate to campaign, because she never wanted to miss an important vote. Smith used her own money and had volunteers who worked for free. She didn’t buy any TV or radio ads.

The Republican Party held its convention in July 1964. On July 15, Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman ever chosen by a major political party to run for president. When it was time to vote, Senator Smith received support from 27 delegates, compared to 883 for Senator Goldwater. Smith came in second. Later that year, in November, Senator Goldwater lost the presidential election to President Lyndon Johnson.

Margaret Chase Smith was famous for wearing a red rose pinned to her suit. She waged a long campaign to have the rose declared the official flower of the United States. The rose stood for the idea that a politician could be polite and yet powerful. During her campaign for president, pins with a plastic rose or an image of a rose were given away to supporters.