How did Ashcroft ever get elected to political office in the first place? [View All]

Ashcroft graduated with honors from Yale in 1964, and went on to study at the University of Chicago Law School, where he and his wife Janet received their law degrees in 1967. After teaching business law at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield for several years, Ashcroft entered public service, first as Missouri Auditor and then as Missouri Attorney General. In 1984 he became Missouri's 50th governor, and was re-elected in a landslide in 1988. He also served as both president of the National Association of Attorneys General and chairman of the National Governor's Association during his terms in those respective seats.

Ashcroft was elected to the United States Senate in 1994, carrying every Missouri county in the process. He quickly emerged as one of the most conservative members of that legislative body. Most recently, he battled Mel Carnahan in a 2000 attempt to keep his Senate seat. He was leading the vicious race when Carnahan suddenly perished in a Jefferson County plane crash. After the tragedy, Ashcroft temporarily halted his campaigning out of respect for Carnahan's family and friends. He later renewed his campaign in a very subdued manner. The Democratic Party decided to stay with Carnahan as their candidate, with the implication that the Democratic governor would appoint Carnahan's wife to the seat. Bolstered by public sympathy for Carnahan as well as national attention, the Democrats were able to tighten the election and emerge victorious in a close race. The election was questionable on several grounds (legality of electing a dead man, polls in St. Louis staying open late, etc.), but clearly Ashcroft could not contest the result because of the circumstances.
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