Carissa Cole

**Carissa Cole** (born December 6, 1955) is an American politician. She served as the Democratic representative for the Southeast's 1st Congressional district, a post held between 1981 and 1987, and briefly again in 1989. She ascended to the post of House Minority Leader in 1982, after Liam Sorenson stepped down, becoming the first woman and African American to do so. Cole became the 16th Secretary of Defense in 1985 when Sorenson resigned, also being the first woman and African-American to do so. In 1989, Cole was elected to the Senate in the Southeast's special election, being the first woman and African American elected since Reconstruction.

## Early Life and Education

Carissa Cole was born to 4th generation African American parents in 1955 in Mena, Arkansas. Her father, being a Baptist minister for the local church, rooted several values with Cole that she still follows to this day. When she was 12, Cole had started running the paper around the town. She graduated high school in 1974. Soon after, Cole attended Texas A&M, getting her B.S. in political science, where she graduated in 1978. Cole moved further north, to Fort Smith, where she established a local pub-grub, one of the first founded by an African American.

## Tenure in the House of Representatives

Cole was elected to the United States House of Representatives in November 1980, having been the youngest representative elected from the region, at the age of 24. During her 3 terms, Cole established herself as a socially conservative Democrat, voting for the Right to Life Amendment (Season IV). In 1986, Cole was held in the Senate well during the campaign season, leaving her unable to win her seat for a 4th term. Cole did win the seat in 1989, wresting it from incumbent James Sorenson. Cole left the House after being elected to the Southeast senate in November 1989.

## Tenure in the Senate

Cole was elected to the United States Senate in the Southeast in a 1989 special election. She is the first woman to hold the seat, and she is also the first African American since Blanche Bruce to be elected to the seat. Cole has been re-elected six times, in 1990, in 1996, in 2002, in 2008, in 2014, and most recently in 2020. During her tenure, Cole has filibustered the American Education For the Future Act, which contained a rider denying funding for abortion services in order to pay for education. Cole became the first congresswoman who ended up pregnant and delivered a child during her Senate term in 2000, and the second overall in Congress. She was followed by Representative Chrestine Bingham to do so in the House in 2004. Carissa gave birth to her second child in 2007 and delivered her third to a full term in 2009.

In 2005, Cole co-sponsored the Provisions on Violations of Human Rights and the Anti Child Exploitation Act

In 2006, Cole wrote and co-authored the Hanson-Cole Hurricane Relief Act, to help families and businesses suffering from the wreckage of Hurricane Gary.

In 2007, Cole authored the Federal Prescription Drug, Medicare, and Insurance Consumer Protection Act of 2007 which modernized Medicaid, open the insurance marketplace and enact pricing regulations for hospitals and toward insurance companies.

In 2007, Cole co-sponsored the National Transportation Infrastructure Expansion Act, which would expand the current high-speed rail network as well as expanding several highways.

In 2012, Cole authored the Preconditions Expansion Act, a bill that specified health conditions that were grounds for guaranteed acceptance and were unable to be denied.

## Secretary of Defense

Cole was first confirmed to the position of Secretary of Defense under President William Stone's first term after former secretary Liam Sorenson resigned. She was again confirmed to the post under the term of Hego Demask after John Greenleaves had taken a leave of absence and she was nominated to replace him. She continued to serve in the post until she was fired in 2001, after enacting a department order that would prevent hiring discrimination based on sexual orientation. Cole has been the sole woman, sole African American, and longest-serving and continuously-serving secretary in U.S. history, serving a total of 26 years and 50 days in the post, with her longest-term serving 12 consecutive years. Cole was re-nominated under Jason Walia's presidency in 2005 and served until her Mother-in-law Rhonda Sherman's win as President in 2016.

### Taliban Bombings

Between December 2006 and December 2007, Cole oversaw the massive bombing campaign in northern Afghanistan. This was done to finally wipe out the Taliban presence in a large stretch of provinces in Northern Afghanistan. During a run, an error in the flight path led to the deaths of 79 civilians. Afterward, Cole admitted responsibility and sent 730,000 to the families as compensation.

## Politics

### Abortion

Cole voted for the Right to Life Amendment during her tenure in the House of Representatives. In a 1990 speech for re-election, Cole placed emphasis on her personal opinion that abortions should be prohibited pending incest, endangerment, or genetic malfunctions, or birth defects.

### Social Security

Cole staunchly is against increases to the qualifying age of social security, as well as saying that increases in the payroll tax were necessary to fund it.

### Taxes

Cole voted against both versions of the Republican-sponsored Tax Reform Act.

### Environment

Cole is a staunch environmentalist, despite voting for some bills (Drilling in the Alaska Wildlife Nature Reserve), and ran her 1992 Vice Presidential campaign on it. She supports increasing subsidies to green alternatives and phasing out the use of fracking via increased prices and stiff competition.

### Gay Marriage

Cole has come out in the middle ground, whereby she supports the rights of homosexuals to adopt children and be treated equally but does not advocate for government intervention in the states. She did not comment on the decision of *Obergefel v. Hodges* that was decided on in 2014.

### Military Intervention

Cole supports napalm strikes on suspected terrorist groups, as well as the CIA using enhanced interrogation measures to find suspected terrorists living in the United States. She supports the U.S.'s current involvement in Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan, and was one of the few people who lead operations in all three combat theatres.

### Foreign Relations

#### China

Cole vehemently supports any dealings with China and was one of the co-sponsors of the resolution that refused recognition of the United Kingdom's transfer of Hong Kong in 1999.

### Middle East

Cole supports American intervention as a form of diplomacy against the "rogue states" and "cradles of terrorism" supported by Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Somali. She does not support selling arms to most nations, barring sales to Free Iraqi State and Kurdish Independents.

## Electoral History

### U.S House of Representatives elections (1980 - 1988)

**1980**

1980 Southeast's 1st Congressional Election
 Majority
 Turnout

**1982**

1982 Southeast's 1st Congressional Election
 Majority
 Turnout

**1984**

1984 Southeast's 1st Congressional Election
 Majority
 Turnout

**1986**

1986 Southeast's 1st Congressional Election
 Majority
 Turnout

**1988**

1988 Southeast's 1st Congressional Election
 Majority
 Turnout

### United States Senate elections (1989 - present)

**1989 Special**

1989 Southeast Special Senate Election
 Majority
 Turnout

**1990**

1990 United States Senate Election in Southeast
 Majority
 Turnout

**1996**

**2002**

2002 United States Senate Election in Southeast
 Majority
 Turnout

**2008**

2008 United States Senate Election in Southeast
 Majority
 Turnout

**2014**

2014 United States Senate Election in Southeast
 Majority
 Turnout

**2020**

2020 United States Senate Election in Southeast
 Majority
 Turnout

### 1992 United States Presidential Election

**1992 Democratic Primaries**

* Andrew Bolt: 8,688,882 (49.56%)
* **Carissa Cole**: 8,617,001 (49.15%)
* Jack Brogan: 226,177 (1.29%)

**1992 Democratic National Convention**

* Andrew Bolt: 2077 (62.35%)
* **Carissa Cole**: 1254: (37.64%)

**1992 United States Presidential election**

### 2016 United States Presidential Election

**2016 United States presidential election**