Robin Carnahan

Missouri Senate Candidate (D)

(Campaign web site)

Why She Matters

In 2008, Carnahan was reelected secretary of state by winning more votes than any other statewide candidate had ever received in Missouri history. Yet, just two years later she found herself on the losing end in a bid for an open Senate seat against Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.).

Carnahan is a member of one of Missouri's most storied political families. Her father, a two-term governor was posthumously elected to the Senate seat he died campaigning for; her grandfather, mother and brother all served in Congress.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: executive at the Export-Import Bank; attorney at the National Democratic Institute; attorney at Thompson & Mitchell (1986-1990)
Birthday: August 4, 1961
Birthplace: Rolla, Mo.
Alma Mater: B.A., William Jewell College; J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law
Spouse: Juan Carlos Antolinez

Religion: Baptist
Campaign contact: 314-367-2004
Email
Campaign web site

Path To Power

Born in a prominent political family, Carnahan first pursued a legal career. After graduating from William Jewell College, she earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia in 1986. While attending law school, she also served as the executive editor of the Virginia Journal of International Law. She then returned to Missouri, where she worked on corporate law at the Thompson & Mitchell firm.

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, Carnahan joined the non-profit National Democratic Institute and spent many years in emerging Eastern European democracies like Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Ukraine. Carnahan next worked as an executive at the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

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In 1999, Carnahan played a crucial role in rallying opposition to Proposition B, a ballot measure that would have lifted a ban on carrying concealed firearms. Carnahan, whose father Mel was serving in his seventh year as governor, emerged as a de-facto campaign manager against Prop B.

She devised an effective electoral strategy and relied on her family connections to recruit prominent allies, for instance convincing then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton to record a robocall against the proposal. Voters rejected Prop B by a 3-point margin.

Secretary of State

In 2000, Carnahan's father, Mel, was running in a tight Senate race when he died in a plane crash just a month before Election Day. He won posthumously, leading to his widow's appointment to the Senate seat. While Jean Carnahan lost her attempt to win a full-term in 2002, the Carnahan family did not stay out of Missouri politics for long: In 2004, Robin and her brother Russ announced their maiden political runs for secretary of state and U.S. House Member, respectively.

Facing a competitive race against state Speaker Catherine Hanaway (R), Robin Carnahan emphasized stylistic rather than substantive differences. She admitted Hanaway's plan "is virtually identical to mine" and worked to contrast Hanaway's partisan role in the state legislature with what she described as her own ability to "be above partisan politics." While Democrats lost in Missouri's presidential, gubernatorial and senatorial races that year, Carnahan prevailed 51 to 46 percent.

2010 Senate campaign

When Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) announced he would not seek reelection in 2010, Carnahan's candidacy was celebrated by national Democrats, who made it no secret they considered this race one of their top opportunities of the cycle. After easily securing the Democratic nomination, she faces Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), who served as the House's GOP Whip from 2003 to 2008.

During the campaign, Carnahan blasted Blunt as the consummate Washington insider, blaming him for contributing to the economic crisis and for ensuring passage of the 2008 financial bailout. "He was in leadership for all that time, and to me has become what we don't like about Washington, which is too cozy with all of the corporate special interests," she said.

But Carnahan was hurt by the national environment's dramatic shift in the GOP's favor. She sought to distance herself from Democrats on issues like tax cuts for the wealthy, while Blunt worked to tie Carnahan to national Democrats' agenda.

The Issues

Carnahan's main duty as Missouri secretary of state was overseeing the electoral system. She has also touted her efforts at improving the state's technological efficiency and her consumer-protection work, pointing to a $9 billion settlement she helped secure from Wachovia Securities on behalf of misled investors.

Carnahan also opposed Republican efforts to require photo identification at the polls. In 2008, Carnahan coasted to reelection, winning more votes than any other statewide candidate had received in Missouri history.

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The Economy

Carnahan supports propping up state budgets to protect public jobs and she has praised Democrats' 2010 stimulus package for focusing on the middle-class, though she has said that more should be done to help small businesses. "We know in the end that government is not where jobs get created," she said. "Jobs get created by small businesses."

Carnahan supported Democratic efforts to reform the health-care system and stated she would have voted for the bill; she backed the inclusion of a public option, saying it could help competition among insurers.

She also called for imposing new financial regulations like restoring a separation between investment banks and commercial banks, and she has faulted her party for not getting Wall Street "calmed down." She has denounced financial bailouts, arguing they give an unfair advantage to large firms.

But Carnahan, who emphasizes her desire to control the deficit and to fight "runaway spending," has called for an extending all of President Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, bucking the White House's preference to let the tax cuts for households making more than $250,000 expire."Now is not the time to raise taxes," she explained.

In September 2010, she criticized Obama's proposal to create jobs with a $50 billion infrastructure investment, saying it was not a "very practical" solution.

National Security

Carnahan has supported President Obama's decision to shift troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan. She has questioned his administration's search for alternatives to military tribunals to try detainees like Sheik Muhammad, however.

The Environment

Carnahan has expressed support for "some kind of cap-and-trade" policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, though she has insisted she would only vote for one if it did not penalize consumers.

She criticized legislation House Democrats passed in 2009 for hurting coal-dependent states like Missouri, though she has avoided taking a clear stance on how she would vote on the bill. She has called for an end to subsidies and tougher taxes on big oil companies.

Social Issues

Carnahan landed her first high-profile political role when she organized opposition to a state initiative lifting a ban on carrying concealed firearms in 1999. But during the 2010 Senate race, she has limited herself to expressing support for a constitutional right to bear arms.

Carnahan supports abortion rights. While she is opposed to same-sex marriage, she has said that Missouri should consider establishing civil unions.

Ethics Reform

Carnahan has made ethics reform a centerpiece of her Senate campaign. She has urged a permanent ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists and has advocated requiring the full disclosure of any meetings between lawmakers and lobbyists.

The Network

Carnahan formed connections to prominent Democrats during her efforts to defeat the 1999 initiative allowing people to carry concealed firearms. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), then the state auditor and now a U.S. senator, were also involved in rallying opposition.

Carnahan's brother, Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), is a House Member.

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Additional Resources