Political Career
In 1959 Helen Boosalis was elected to the Lincoln City Council, scoring an upset victory over an incumbent, and was subsequently reelected three times. She won another upset victory over incumbent Sam Schwartzkopf to become the city's first woman mayor in 1975. From 1981 to 1982, she served as the first female President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.
Shortly after completing her tenure as Mayor in 1983, Boosalis was appointed as Director of the Nebraska Department of Aging in the Cabinet of then-Governor Bob Kerrey, she served in that post until she announced her candidacy for Governor of Nebraska in the 1986 election. Boosalis received a plurality of the vote in the crowded Democratic primary with 43.8% of the votes. She lost to the Republican candidate, State Treasurer Kay A. Orr in the general election with Boosalis receiving 47.1% of the vote and Orr getting 53.9%. This election was the first state gubernatorial election in U.S. history where the candidates of both major national parties were women.
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