After her worldwide tour, Lowden went to school and earned her degree from American University and her master's degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Following her graduation, Lowden began teaching in New Jersey. She didn't stay long as she moved to Las Vegas to become an anchorwoman on the CBS affliate for southern Nevada. As the Silver State's first female anchorwoman, she earned numerous state and national news awards for her work.

State Senator

In 1992, Lowden decided to enter politics and ran for the Nevada state Senate. She defeated Vergiels, the Nevada Senate majority leader.

While in the Nevada legislature, Lowden served as the Senate majority whip and the Senate Taxation Committee chair. She served until 1996 when she was defeated for reelection in part due to opposition by a powerful labor union.

Afterwards, Lowden became active in her family's hotel-casino business.

2010 Senate Race

In 2007, she reentered the political scene by becoming the chair of the Nevada Republican Party. Lowden continued to serve in that role until 2009, when she entered the Senate race to unseat Reid.

Her term as party chair was controversial because she stopped an election at the 2008 state convention to elect delegates to the national convention, angering supporters of 2008 presidential candidate and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) who argued the election was stolen.

The ballots were confiscated and the delegates were later named by the party leadership. A political action committee, the Fair Nevada Elections PAC, was formed to oppose her Senate bid because of the aborted convention.

Some observers believed Paul backers could hurt Lowden in the primary in which Lowden faced former basketball coach Danny Tarkanian and Assemblywoman Sharron Angle in a competitive intraparty race.

Lowden lost to Angle in June 2010.

Show less