Maggie Hassan: 5 things to know about Biden’s possible Democratic VP contender

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Sen. Maggie Hassan's emotional story about COVID-19's impact on her family

Senator Maggie Hassan shares a story about her handicap son and how her family is coping with the coronavirus outbreak

Now that former Vice President Joe Biden is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, the search for his running mate is taking center stage and Sen. Maggie Hassan has been mentioned as a potential contender.

The Democrat from Newfields, New Hampshire is in her fourth year serving in the U.S. Senate, where she’s been able to reach across party lines to seek common ground. And as a former two-term governor, she comes equipped with executive experience.

Here are five things to know about one of the contenders in the 2020 veepstakes.

Public service pedigree

Hassan's father, Robert Wood, was the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Lyndon Johnson. Her father also served as president of the University of Massachusetts, the MBTA, and Boston Public Schools.

Her son’s cerebral palsy spurred her entry into politics

Soon after the birth of their first child, Ben, Maggie and her husband Tom learned he had cerebral palsy and would face severe physical disabilities. Hassan says that as their son grew older, “I began to advocate for his full inclusion in school. I found myself at our state capital, speaking up for families like ours and individuals with disabilities.”

Her activism caught the attention of then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, who in 1999 appointed Hassan to a state commission on education.

“She wanted to make sure that there was good parent representation on the commission and because I had one child with disabilities and one child without, she thought I’d be a good person to represent voices of children in our state,” Hassan said of Shaheen’s decision to appoint her to the commission.

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Two very noteworthy seconds

In 2012, Hassan became the second woman ever elected governor of New Hampshire, following Shaheen. In 2016, Hassan became the second woman ever in American history elected governor and U.S. senator, once again following Shaheen, whom she calls a friend and a mentor.

What she’s pushed for over the years

Hassan served six years as a state senator in New Hampshire, the last two as majority leader. In 2009 she was the driving force behind a bill that legalized same-sex marriage in the state. She also successfully pushed hard for a bill that mandated universal kindergarten in the state.

In her two two-year terms as governor, she steered the successful bipartisan drive for Medicaid expansion in the state, froze tuition at state colleges and universities for the first time in a quarter-century, and through executive order banned discrimination in state government against transgender people.

In the U.S. Senate, one of her signature issues is combating the opioid crisis. The senator's fought repeatedly for federal funding for treatment, recovery, and the first responders on the front-lines in the battle.

Hassan’s teamed up with Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana to push for a bill that would protect patients from surprise medical bills. And she’s one of the leaders in the effort to provide student loan debt relief to young entrepreneurs starting innovative small businesses.

Hassan serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and is the ranking member (top Democrat) on the panel’s Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management Subcommittee. She also serves on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), and the Senate Finance Committee, where she’s ranking member on the panel’s Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth Subcommittee. She’s also a member of the Joint Economic Committee, a joint panel of the Senate and House that’s tasked with overseeing the health of the nation’s economy and recommending policies to strengthen the economy.

The campus life

Hassan’s first name is actually Margaret, although she’s known as Maggie.

Another interesting fact: she sang in church and school choirs, and even in college. And college is where she met her husband, Tom Hassan, when both were students at Brown University in Rhode Island.

They married in 1983 and while Tom was pursuing his PhD they lived in a freshman dorm at Harvard University, where her husband served as assistant dean of freshman. Hassan at the time attended and graduated from law school at nearby Northeastern University.

Years later the Hassans again lived on campus – along with their children – when Tom became principal of the famed Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire.