Margaret Chase Smith

A Republican, Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate on her own and the first woman to serve in both houses of congress.

She was also the first Senator to speak out against Sen. Joe McCarthy on the Senate floor in a speech she called the Declaration of Conscience.  She said, “I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny–Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”

That whirring sound you hear is Sen. Smith spinning in her grave.