Lincoln Chafee

Lincoln Davenport Chafee was born and raised in Rhode Island. He earned a degree in Classics from Brown University in 1975. While there, he was captain of the wrestling team and received the Francis M. Driscoll Award for leadership, scholarship and athletics.

After graduation, Senator Chafee attended horseshoeing school in Bozeman, Montana. For the next seven years, he worked as a blacksmith at harness racetracks in the United States and Canada. One of the horses he shod, Overburden, set the track record at Northlands Park in Edmonton, Alberta.

Upon returning to Rhode Island, Senator Chafee served two terms on the Warwick City Council and was elected Mayor of the City four times. As Mayor, Lincoln Chafee had a strong record of fiscal management, environmental protection, open space acquisition, intergovernmental cooperation, economic development, good labor relations, and significant increases in funding for schools.

In November, 1999, Chafee was appointed by the Governor of Rhode Island to fill the unexpired term of his father, the late Senator John H. Chafee. On November 7, 2000, Chafee was elected to a six year term in the United States Senate. During his time in the Senate, he was a member of the Committee on Foreign Relations and the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

In 2006, Senator Chafee prevailed in a September primary but lost the November election in a nationally watched race. He is currently a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Watson Institute at Brown University in Providence. He is the author of Against the Tide: How a Compliant Congress Empowered a Reckless President.