Teresa Heinz - Politics

Politics

Heinz was a registered Republican for most of her voting career, the same as her first husband, and she remained a registered Republican despite being married to Kerry. In January 2003, she changed her registration to the Democratic Party. Later in 2004, she reportedly changed her name from Teresa Heinz to Teresa Heinz Kerry during her husband's presidential run. After her husband's defeat, and shortly before she gave a speech to the National Council for Research on Women in January 2005, she changed back to Teresa Heinz.

In 2003, she was named to the PoliticsPA list of "Pennsylvania's Most Politically Powerful Women".

She is said to have been encouraged to run for her first husband's vacant Senate seat after his death. Heinz declined and refused to endorse Republican Congressman's Rick Santorum's 1994 bid for the seat. She publicly denounced him as the "antithesis" of her late husband, and later called him "Forrest Gump with attitude." It was rumored she would challenge Santorum in 2006 (as a Democrat), but she did not enter the race, and the Democratic nomination went to State Treasurer Bob Casey, Jr., who went on to defeat Santorum.