James M. Jeffords

James M. Jeffords, born in 1934, member of the United States Senate from Vermont, from 1989 to 2007. A longtime member of the Republican Party, Jeffords left the party in 2001 and declared himself an independent.

Born in Rutland, Vermont, Jeffords received a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1956 and a law degree from Harvard University in 1962. He served in the United States Navy from 1956 to 1959, and he was a naval reservist from 1959 to 1990. In 1966 Jeffords won a seat in the Vermont state Senate. From 1969 to 1973, he was the state’s attorney general. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for governor of Vermont in 1972. In 1974 he won a three-way Republican primary for Vermont’s open seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

After a seven-term career in the House, Jeffords was elected in 1988 to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Robert Stafford. After increasing disagreements with the Republican Party on issues such as the environment, abortion rights, and education, Jeffords left the party in 2001 and declared himself an independent. Jeffords’s decision was especially significant because the Senate was evenly split between Republicans and Democrats at the time. His move gave control of the body to the Democrats, which then had 50 seats to the Republicans’ 49. The Democrats maintained their majority until the 2002 midterm elections when Republicans regained control of the Senate. Jeffords retired from the Senate in 2006.