Margaret Chase Smith, an American politician (Republican from Maine), is elected senator as the first woman to serve in

Margaret Madeline Chase Smith was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S. representative (1940–1949) and a U.S. senator (1949–1973) from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the U.S. Congress. A Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her 1950 speech "Declaration of Conscience".

Smith was a candidate in the 1964 Republican Party presidential primaries; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the U.S. presidency at a major party's convention. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 4, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski from Maryland exceeded her record.