Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson is the junior U.S. senator from Texas.

Hutchison was born on July 22, 1943, in Galveston, TX, and now lives in Dallas. She earned a B.A. in 1962 and a J.D. in 1967 from the University of Texas. She is Episcopalian and is married to Ray. They have two children, Brenda and Julie.

Hutchison was a senior vice president and general counsel for RepublicBank Corp. and then a co-founder of Fidelity National Bank in Dallas. She also owned McCraw Candies, Inc., and became a political/legal correspondent for a KPRC-TV in Houston.

Hutchison's political experience began in the Texas House of Representatives, where she served from 1973 to 1977. She became Texas state treasurer in 1991 and was first elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election in 1993 to replace Lloyd Bentsen, who resigned to become Treasury secretary under President Clinton.

Hutchison serves on the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. She is also a Senate Republican deputy whip. In 2000 Senator Hutchison was reelected with 65 percent of the vote.