| Katrina Swett | |
| Birth Name: | Yvonne Katrina Lantos |
| Birth Date: | 8 October 1955 |
| Birth Place: | San Francisco, California, U.S.[1] |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Children: | 7 |
| Education: | Yale University (BA) University of California, Hastings (JD) University of Southern Denmark (PhD) |
Yvonne Katrina Swett (née Lantos; born October 8, 1955) is the President of the Lantos Foundation.[2] [3] [4] She is also an American educator and the former chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom from 2012 to 2013, and then in 2014 to 2015.[5] She ran unsuccessfully as the Democratic candidate for Congress in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district during the 2002 United States midterm elections.
Swett is a first-generation American. Her father, the congressman Tom Lantos (D-CA), a survivor of the Holocaust, and her mother, Annette Tillemann Lantos, came to the United States from Hungary after World War II. Katrina Swett has a sister, Annette.
She skipped high school, entered college at 14, and transferred to Yale where her older sister Annette was a student. She earned a degree in political science there in 1974 at 18, and her Juris Doctor in 1976 from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.[6] At 21, she joined the staff of then U.S. Senator Joe Biden's Senate Judiciary Committee.[7] In 2006, she earned her Ph.D. in history with a focus on Human Rights and United States Foreign Policy from the University of Southern Denmark.
She is the wife of Ambassador and former Congressman Richard Swett, vice president of Swett Associates, Inc., a consulting firm.[8] Swett met Richard Swett at Yale, where she became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, largely through her interactions with Jeffrey R. Holland.[9] Katrina and Richard married in 1980.[10] The couple have seven children and live in Bow, New Hampshire.[11]
In 2009, Swett was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary for her efforts in setting up the Tom Lantos Institute in Budapest, continuing her late father's work for the benefit of ethnic minorities there. In 2016, in the company of at least 100 other recipients of Hungarian state awards, Swett returned the Knight's Cross in protest of the Hungarian government's commendation of Zsolt Bayer, a writer, publisher, public speaker, and member of the Fidesz party for his rhetoric, what she considers antisemitic, anti-Muslim, and antiziganist.[12]
In 2016, the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University presented Swett the International Religious Liberty Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the promotion and preservation of religious freedom.[13]
Swett ran two of her father's campaigns for Congress. She was a Congressional staffer, first as a legislative assistant and then as Deputy Counsel to the Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.[8]
She co-hosted a political talk show, Beyond Politics on WMUR-TV Channel 9 with former Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Tamposi. She ran in 2002 against Republican incumbent U.S. Representative Charles Bass and received less than 41% of vote, losing by 16%.[14] [15] [16]
Swett was national co-chair of Joe Lieberman's 2004 presidential race.[17] She accused General Wesley Clark of apostasy on the AUMF in the Iraq War of 2003, and for having linked Al-Qaeda with Iraq.[18] In 2006, she supported Lieberman's successful 2006 re-election campaign as an Independent against Democrat Ned Lamont and Republican nominee Alan Schlesinger.[19]
She ran for Congress in 2002, unsuccessfully attempting to recapture the seat previously held by her husband. General Wesley Clark endorsed her; he had known the Swetts when he was SACEUR and they lived in Denmark.[18] She received financial support from her parents, Nancy Pelosi, John and Lisa Pritzker, a San Francisco Supervisor and her husband, Warren Hellman, Herbert Sandler and Marion Sandler, Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw, David Geffen, and other Californians.[20]
See also: United States Senate election in New Hampshire, 2008. On January 18, 2007, Katrina Swett announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate in the 2008 elections in New Hampshire, in hopes of being the Democratic nominee to unseat incumbent Republican John E. Sununu. She began fundraising for the 2008 Senate campaign. After former Governor and 2002 nominee Jeanne Shaheen announced her candidacy, Swett withdrew and endorsed Shaheen,[21] who later won the election.
On January 14, 2010, Katrina Swett announced her candidacy for the Democratic Primary for Congress in New Hampshire's 2nd congressional district in the 2010 elections.[22] Her more left-leaning opponent, Ann McLane Kuster, won the primary election,[23] but Kuster lost in the general election to her Republican opponent, Charles Bass.
Ann Kuster won the general election in the 2012 U.S. House of Representatives campaign.
Katrina Lantos Swett talked about the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, and her late father, Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA), who founded the bipartisan Congressional Human Rights Caucus. She told the story of her parents' escape from German labor camps and eventual immigration to the U.S. from Hungary. Other topics included her concerns over Russian leadership pulling the country away from democracy, and her admiration for the Dalai Lama's contributions to human rights. She discussed her failed campaign to represent New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional district in 2010, her husband Richard Swett's service as ambassador to Denmark and representation of New Hampshire's 2nd district for two terms, and raising seven children.
Katrina Lantos Swett teaches foreign policy at Tufts University, and is President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, her J.D. from the University of California, and her Ph.D. in History from the University of Southern Denmark.
. 2012-04-26. (video of interview)