Sheila Frahm (née Sloan; born March 22, 1945) is an American politician who served in the United States Senate as a Republican from Kansas for a brief period in 1996.

Life and career

Frahm was born in Colby, Kansas. In 1979, she served as a member of the town school board. She was appointed to the Kansas state Board of Education in 1985 and was re-elected in 1986. In 1988, she was appointed to the position of vice-president. Frahm was a member of the Kansas State Senate from 1989 to 1995. She became the first woman to be given the title of majority leader of the Kansas Senate when she was elected in 1993. Eight days later, Governor Bill Graves announced that he would appoint Frahm to replace Dole. On June 11, Dole resigned and Frahm was sworn in. Around the time she was sworn in as Senator, she labeled herself as "traditionally conservative...very tight-fisted, very prudent. That's what Kansas is."

Frahm ran in the Republican special primary on August 6 to serve Dole's remaining two years of his term, where she immediately ran into competition in first-term U.S. Representative Sam Brownback (who had asked Graves to appoint him but was rejected). He campaigned in favor of banning legal abortion and a constitutional amendment allowing school prayer, each of which Frahm opposed. Frahm received just 41% of the vote; Brownback went on to win the November 1996 special general election, taking office two days after winning. Frahm was the first appointed senator to lose a party primary since Maryon Pittman Allen in 1978 and the last until Luther Strange did so in 2017.

Other

Frahm is an Honorary Chair of Women for Kansas. She moved back to Colby, Kansas, and became the executive director of the Kansas Association of Community College Trustees. For the 2018 gubernatorial election, Frahm joined many other high-profile Republican current and former legislators and politicians in endorsing the Democratic nominee, and eventual victor, Laura Kelly. Frahm endorsed Kelly again in her successful 2022 reelection bid.

See also

  • List of female lieutenant governors in the United States
  • Women in the United States Senate

References

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