Sue Lowden

Suzanne "Sue" Pluskoski Lowden (born February 8, 1952) is the former Chairwoman of the Nevada Republican Party and a former State Senator in Nevada. Lowden is a former businesswoman, television news anchor and kindergarten teacher. Lowden was an unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2010 United States Senate election in Nevada and the 2014 Nevada Lt. Governor election.

A native of New Jersey, Lowden is a graduate of American University and Fairleigh Dickinson University. She served as a State Senator for Nevada from 1993 to 1997. During her four years in the state legislature, she held the senior leadership position of majority whip.

Early life and career

Born Suzanne Parkinson Pluskoski, and raised in New Jersey, Lowden graduated in 1970 from Gloucester Catholic High School. At age 16, she became Miss National Park, New Jersey. She accumulated other local and regional titles, including Miss Gloucester County, Miss Cape May County, Miss New Jersey Apple Princess, and Miss Steel Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey at age 19 in 1971. Lowden was Miss District of Columbia USA in 1971, and a semi-finalist at Miss USA. Changing her name to Suzanne Plummer, in 1973, she was Miss New Jersey on her second try, and was 2nd runner-up for Miss America having won the swimsuit portion.

Ron Paul

Ronald Ernest "Ron" Paul (born August 20, 1935) is an American politician, author, and physician, who is a former Republican congressman, two-time Republican presidential candidate, and the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1988 U.S. presidential election.

Paul served as the U.S. Representative for Texas' 14th and 22nd congressional districts. He represented the 22nd congressional district from 1976 to 1977 and from 1979 to 1985, and then represented the 14th congressional district, which included Galveston, from 1997 to 2013. On three occasions, he sought the presidency of the United States: as the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988 and as a candidate in the Republican primaries of 2008 and 2012. Paul is a critic of the federal government's fiscal policies, especially the existence of the Federal Reserve and the tax policy, as well as the military–industrial complex, and the War on Drugs. Paul has also been a vocal critic of mass surveillance policies such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the NSA surveillance programs. Paul was the first chairman of the conservative PAC Citizens for a Sound Economy and has been characterized as the "intellectual godfather" of the Tea Party movement.

Chris Matthews

Christopher John "Chris" Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American political commentator, talk show host and author. He is known for his nightly hour-long talk show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, which is televised on the American cable television channel MSNBC. From 2002 to 2013, he hosted a syndicated NBC News–produced panel discussion program on weekends titled The Chris Matthews Show. Matthews appears on other NBC and MSNBC programs. Matthews is known for his Philadelphia accent.

Early life and education

Matthews was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Mary Teresa (née Shields) and Herb Matthews, a court reporter. His father was a Protestant of English and Scotch-Irish ancestry, and his mother was from an Irish Catholic family; Matthews is himself a Roman Catholic. He attended La Salle College High School. He is a 1967 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, and did graduate work in economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was also a visiting fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics.