- published: 10 Jan 2015
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Kay Bailey Hutchison (born Kathryn Ann Bailey; July 22, 1943) is the senior United States Senator from Texas. She is a member of the Republican Party. In 2001, she was named one of the thirty most powerful women in America by Ladies Home Journal. The first woman to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, Hutchison also became the first Texas U.S. senator to receive more than four million votes in a single election.
Hutchison is the most senior female Republican senator, and fifth most senior female senator, having assumed office in June 1993 behind Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD, 1987), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA, 1992), Barbara Boxer (D-CA, Jan. 1993), and Patty Murray (D-WA, Jan. 1993).
Hutchison was born Kathryn Ann Bailey in Galveston, the daughter of Kathryn Ella (née Sharp) and Allan Abner Bailey, Jr., an insurance agent. She has two brothers, Allan and Frank. Hutchison grew up in La Marque, Texas.
She married her first husband, John Pierce Parks, a medical student, on April 8, 1967; they divorced in 1969. She married her present (second) husband, Ray Hutchison, in Dallas on March 16, 1978. They have two adopted children: Kathryn Bailey and Houston Taylor, both adopted in 2001. She also has two stepdaughters, Brenda and Julie, from her husband's previous marriage. Ray Hutchison is a former member of the Texas Legislature, a former state Republican chairman, and ran an unsuccessful bid for the Texas governorship, having lost the Republican nomination in 1978 to Bill Clements, a senior partner with the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, of Dallas.
Alan Stuart "Al" Franken (born May 21, 1951) is the junior United States Senator from Minnesota. He is a member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, which affiliates with the national Democratic Party.
Franken achieved note as a writer and performer for the television show Saturday Night Live from its conception in 1975 before moving to writing and acting in films and television shows. He then became a political commentator, author of five books and host of a nationally syndicated radio show on the Air America Radio network.
In 2008, Franken narrowly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Norm Coleman, by 312 votes, after a mandatory statewide manual recount. Coleman contested the outcome in court, but the Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously upheld Franken's victory on June 30, 2009. Franken was sworn in to the Senate on July 7, 2009.
Franken was born in New York City. His mother, Phoebe G. (née Kunst), was a homemaker and real estate agent, and his father, Joseph P. Franken, was a printing salesman. The family later moved to St. Louis Park, a suburb near Minneapolis. Franken had a Jewish upbringing. His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Germany, and his mother's family was from Russia. His older brother Owen is a photojournalist; MSNBC's Bob Franken is his cousin. Franken graduated in 1969 from The Blake School, where he was on the wrestling team. He attended Harvard College and graduated with an A.B. cum laude in 1973 in political science.