| Sheila Frahm | |
| Jr/Sr: | United States Senator |
| State: | Kansas |
| Term Start: | June 11, 1996 |
| Term End: | November 7, 1996 |
| Appointer: | Bill Graves |
| Predecessor: | Bob Dole |
| Successor: | Sam Brownback |
| Office1: | 44th Lieutenant Governor of Kansas |
| Governor1: | Bill Graves |
| Term Start1: | January 9, 1995 |
| Term End1: | June 11, 1996 |
| Predecessor1: | Jim Francisco |
| Successor1: | Gary Sherrer |
| State Senate2: | Kansas |
| District2: | 40th |
| Term Start2: | January 9, 1989 |
| Term End2: | January 9, 1995 |
| Predecessor2: | Richard Gannon |
| Successor2: | Stan Clark |
| Birth Date: | 22 March 1945 |
| Birth Place: | Colby, Kansas, U.S. |
| Party: | Republican |
| Spouse: | Kenneth Frahm |
| Education: | Fort Hays State University (BA) University of Texas at Austin |
| Birth Name: | Sheila Sloan |
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.[1]
Frahm was born in Colby, Kansas. In 1979, she served as a member of the town school board.[2] 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.[3] 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.[3] Frahm was the 44th Lieutenant Governor of Kansas from 1995 to 1996. While serving as lieutenant governor, Frahm also served as the state's Secretary of Administration.
On May 16, 1996, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, announced that he would resign from the Senate to focus all of his time on his presidential campaign, stating that he would formally leave by June 11.[4] 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. [5] [1] During her time in the Senate, Frahm voted with the Republican Party 92.9% of the time. The Senate average was 87.5%.[6] 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."[7]
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.[8] Frahn received just 41% of the vote; Brownback went on to win the November 1996 special general election, taking office two days after winning.[9] 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.[10] [11] [12]
Frahm is an Honorary Chair of Women for Kansas.[13] 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.[14] Frahm endorsed Kelly again in her successful 2022 reelection bid.[15]
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