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Jeannette Rankin was elected to Congress 4 years before the 19th Amendment. A Montana law made it work.

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On August 26, 1920, the 19th Amendment became law. After a long, 72-year battle that began at the Seneca Falls Convention, American women won the right to vote. However, four years prior, a woman was elected to Congress. 

Enter: Jeannette Rankin 

Rankin grew up in Montana exploring various passions but really developed her calling for activism in San Francisco when she was 27. Over the next few years, she traveled to New York and Washington to support suffrage organizations. She then returned to her home state to do the same, even becoming president of the Montana Women’s Suffrage Association…

Rankin was instrumental in the passage of suffrage legislation in Montana in 1914

…which undoubtedly aided her when she decided to run for Congress in 1916…and won. 

Running on a progressive Republican........

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