NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Jane Eskind, the first woman to win a statewide election in Tennessee and a longtime Democratic Party activist, died Thursday. She was 83.
Eskind died after a long illness, said Katy Varney, a family spokeswoman.
Eskind’s landmark victory came when she was elected to the Public Service Commission in 1980. Two years earlier, she was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate but lost to Howard Baker Jr. in the general election. She also lost races for governor and Congress. In 1994, Eskind became the first woman to chair the Tennessee Democratic Party.
Though she lost more than she won, Eskind left her mark on Democratic politics.
“Imagine how unbreakable the glass ceiling in Tennessee must have looked in 1964 when Jane Eskind began her work in Democratic politics,” Tennessee Democratic Party Chairwoman Mary Mancini said in a statement. “But she was dedicated and persevered and broke through it with gusto, and we are thankful for her many ‘firsts.'”