Cynthia Jeanne Shaheen (/ʃəˈhiːn/ shə-HEEN; née Bowers, born January 28, 1947) is an American politician and retired educator serving as the senior United States senator from New Hampshire since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the first female U.S. senator in New Hampshire's history, the first elected female governor of New Hampshire and the first woman elected as both a governor and a U.S. senator, with the junior senator from New Hampshire and former governor of the state Maggie Hassan being the second woman to have occupied both of those roles.