Father's Day for the Senate's ‘Legacy Caucus’

Chafee Family John Chafee and his son Lincoln with former President George H. W. Bush.

Senators Chafee
(Republicans - Rhode Island)
John Chafee (1976-1999) and his son, Lincoln Chafee (1999-Present)
John Chafee was enough of a Civil War buff to spend his honeymoon with his wife touring battlefields and to eventually name one of his sons after President Abraham Lincoln. Forty-six years later, that same son would return to the Capitol, for only the second time in his life, to take the oath of office - replacing his father who had died suddenly. Lincoln Chafee had begun his campaign to seek his father's seat in March 1999, soon after his father announced his retirement. "We talked about it. He was discouraging at first, saying it's a tough life for someone with a young family," Lincoln recalls. But, in the end, his father recognized that his open seat represented a rare opportunity for a Rhode Island Republican and concluded that his son was making the right decision. Lincoln was appointed to the seat in 1999 and was elected to it a year later.

As a child, Lincoln would go to some of his father's campaign events - only "the fun ones", he says - and even picked up a few of his father's lines along the way. When a voter came up to John Chafee and informed him he was supporting his opponent, John shook his hand and said, "Well, I guess it's not going to be unanimous." Lincoln smiles when noting, "I use it now. I use his line."

Lincoln's first solo political appearance was as a surrogate for his father's successful 1976 Senate campaign. He was sent to a sixth grade class that had invited his father to speak, and remembers, "I could not stop my knees from shaking." He waited a decade before entering politics himself (after working as a blacksmith) in what he refers to as an "obscure election" for delegate to the Rhode Island Constitutional Convention and realized he loved and enjoyed it. He went on to serve on the Warwick City Council and then as mayor of Warwick before seeking his father's seat.

While in the Senate, Lincoln has voted with Democrats on issues including opposition to the war in Iraq and tax cuts, but he challenges the idea that he is more liberal than his father: "The times have changed so much,” he says, “His Republican Party, that he came in, with was so different than the Republican Party now."

As for differences between them, he notes a difference in style, in that his father was "more a player", due to his seniority.

In looking back on his father's legacy, he points to his work on health care, leading up to the national debate early in President Bill Clinton's presidency, and that "foreseeing an important issue early paid off" for him. But Lincoln says he's most proud of the "tenacity" his father demonstrated in dealing with two political losses in races for governor and Senate, each time keeping a "steady course" and keeping his head high.

As for advice he received from his dad, one thing, he says, stands out. "I can hear it and picture it as clear as day,” he says, “He was addressing some students, and he said to them, 'If you're interested in a career in politics, first make sure you have another way of making a living, so that you can make good decisions, and know that if there's a political liability to the position you're taking, you could always go on to a career in something that you're good at.’”

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