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{{Short description|American politician (1936–2024)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name         = Jim Sasser
|image        = File:Jim Sasser.png
|caption      = Official portrait, 1986
|office       = 6th [[United States Ambassador to China]]
|president    = [[Bill Clinton]]
|term_start   = February 14, 1996
|term_end     = July 1, 1999
|predecessor  = [[J. Stapleton Roy]]
|successor    = [[Joseph Prueher]]
|jr/sr1       = United States Senator
|state1       = [[Tennessee]]
|term_start1  = January 3, 1977
|term_end1    = January 3, 1995
|predecessor1 = [[Bill Brock]]
|successor1   = [[Bill Frist]]
|birth_name   = James Ralph Sasser
|birth_date   = {{birth date|1936|9|30}}
|birth_place  = [[Memphis, Tennessee]], U.S.
|death_date   = {{death date and age|2024|9|10|1936|9|30}}
|death_place  = {{nobr|[[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]], U.S.}}
|party        = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|spouse       = {{marriage|Mary Gorman|1962}}
|children     = 2
|education    = [[University of Tennessee]]<br>{{nowrap|[[Vanderbilt University]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]], [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]])}}
|residence    =
|allegiance   = {{flag|United States}}
|branch       = {{flag country|United States Marine Corps|23px}}
|serviceyears = 1957–1963
|unit         = Reserve
|module       = {{Listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Sen. Jim Sasser on the State of Iraq Under International Sanctions.ogg|title=Sasser's voice|type=speech|description=Sasser describes the effects of the [[Gulf War]] on [[Iraq]]'s imports and exports<br/>Recorded January 11, 1991}}
}}

'''James Ralph Sasser''' (September 30, 1936 – September 10, 2024) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney from [[Tennessee]]. A member of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], he served three terms as a member of the [[United States Senate]] from 1977 to 1995, and was Chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Budget]]. From 1996 to 1999, during the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Clinton Administration]], he was the [[List of ambassadors of the United States to China|United States Ambassador to China]].

To date, Sasser is the most recent Tennessee United States Senator representing the Democratic Party.

==Early life and career==
James Ralph Sasser was born in [[Memphis, Tennessee]], on September 30, 1936.<ref name=McFadden>{{cite news|title=James Sasser, Senator and Clinton's Envoy to China, Dies at 87 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/11/us/politics/james-sasser-dead.html |last=McFadden |first=Robert D. |authorlink=Robert D. McFadden |date=September 11, 2024 |accessdate=September 11, 2024 |newspaper=The New York Times |url-access=limited}}</ref> He attended public schools in [[Nashville, Tennessee]],<ref name=McFadden/> graduating from [[Hillsboro_High_School_(Tennessee)|Hillsboro High School]] in 1954.<ref>{{cite web |title=James Sasser − Class of 1954 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121116001228/http://www.hillsborohsalumni.org/featured/sasser.php |website=Hillsboro High School Alumni |archive-date=November 16, 2012 |url=http://www.hillsborohsalumni.org/featured/sasser.php}}</ref> He attended the [[University of Tennessee]] from 1954 to 1955, where he joined the Lambda chapter of [[Kappa Sigma]] fraternity. He earned his undergraduate degree from [[Vanderbilt University]] in 1958, followed by his law degree from the [[Vanderbilt University Law School]] in 1961.<ref>{{Cite web|date=July 1, 2013|title=Tennessee statesman James Sasser donates papers to Vanderbilt|url=https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2013/07/01/sasser-donates-papers/|access-date=May 6, 2022|website=News|language=en-US}}</ref> He was admitted to the Tennessee Bar in 1961 and began practicing law in Nashville.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Randal Rust|title=Sasser, James Ralph|url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/james-ralph-sasser/|access-date=September 9, 2021|website=Tennessee Encyclopedia|language=en-US}}</ref>

From 1957 to 1963, he served in [[United States Marine Corps Reserve|the United States Marine Corps Reserve]].<ref>{{cite web|access-date=June 15, 2007 |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000068 |title=Sasser, James Ralph — Biographical Information |work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress}}</ref>

Sasser was a long time Democratic activist and the manager of [[Albert Gore Sr.]]'s unsuccessful 1970 reelection campaign. A lawyer by trade, Sasser sought election in his own right and won his party's 1976 nomination for the United States Senate. He defeated, among others, [[Nashville, Tennessee]] entrepreneur and attorney [[John Jay Hooker]], then still considered to be a serious candidate due to his strong personality, his (intermittent) wealth, and his connections with ''[[The Tennessean]]''{{'s}} controlling Seigenthaler family. His son Gray Sasser, also a lawyer, is a past chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

==Senate campaigns==

===1976 election===
{{see main|1976 United States Senate election in Tennessee}}
Upon winning his party's Senate nomination, Sasser set out to attack the record of one-term incumbent Sen. [[Bill Brock]], heir to a [[Chattanooga, Tennessee]] candy fortune. Sasser emphasized Brock's connections to former President [[Richard Nixon]] and his use of [[income tax]] code provisions that had, despite his great wealth and considerable income, resulted in his paying less than $2,000 in income tax the previous year. Sasser was able to capitalize on the tax issue by pointing out that Brock had paid less than many Tennesseans of considerably more modest means.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

Sasser's campaign was also greatly aided by the efforts of ex-Senator Gore. Brock had defeated the elder Gore for the Senate in 1970 largely upon the basis of Gore's opposition to the [[Vietnam War]]. Sasser won handily over Brock, and went on to serve three terms in the Senate.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

===Re-election, 1982 and 1988===
{{see main|1982 United States Senate election in Tennessee|1988 United States Senate election in Tennessee}}
Sasser turned back a serious effort against him by five-term [[United States House of Representatives]] member [[Robin Beard]] very handily in 1982. That showing was so impressive that his 1988 [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] opponent was a virtual political unknown named <!---[[Bill Andersen (politician)|-->Bill Andersen, whose underfunded, essentially token campaign never stood a chance.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

===1994 re-election campaign===
{{Main|1994 United States Senate election in Tennessee}}
There were two unforeseen events that negated Sasser's popularity. Some Tennessee voters were discontented with the first two years of the [[Presidency of Bill Clinton|Bill Clinton administration]], especially the proposal for a national health-care system largely put together and advocated by Clinton's wife, [[Hillary Clinton]], as well as the passage of the [[Federal Assault Weapons Ban]]. The other was the somewhat unexpected nomination of [[Nashville, Tennessee]] [[heart transplantation]] surgeon [[Bill Frist]] for the seat by the Republicans.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

Frist was a political unknown and a total novice (who never voted until he was 36)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.chron.com/news/nation-world/article/Unanimous-vote-names-Frist-new-Senate-leader-2085913.php|title=Unanimous vote names Frist new Senate leader|first=Karen|last=Masterson|date=December 24, 2002 |access-date=October 14, 2020|work=[[Houston Chronicle]]}}</ref> at campaigning, but was from one of Nashville's most prominent and wealthiest medical families, which gave him name recognition, especially in the Nashville area, and resources adequate to match the campaign war chest built up by a typical three-term incumbent, a challenge most "insurgent" candidates find to be extremely difficult. A further factor working to Frist's advantage was a [[1994 United States Senate special election in Tennessee|simultaneous Republican campaign]] by actor and attorney [[Fred Thompson]] for the other Tennessee Senate seat, which was held to replace [[Al Gore]], who had resigned in 1993 to become [[Vice President of the United States]]. To an extent, Frist was able to bask in the reflected glory of this formidable stage presence, and additionally developed some campaigning skills, which were almost totally absent in the early stages of his campaign. Another factor in Frist's favor was that Sasser was never seen as possessing much [[charisma]] of his own. During the campaign Nashville radio stations were derisive towards Sasser to the point of stating that he could only win "a [[Kermit the Frog]] lookalike contest."{{citation needed|date=July 2019}} In one of the largest [[Upset (competition)|upset]]s in a night of political upsets in the November 1994 [[1994 United States elections|U.S. general elections]], Sasser lost his seat to Frist by 211,062 votes. Sasser and Pennsylvania's [[Harris Wofford]] were the only incumbents to lose re-election in the 1994 cycle. As of 2024, Sasser is the last Democrat to have represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate. [https://clerk.house.gov/member_info/electionInfo/1994election.pdf]{{cn|date=September 2024}}

==Senate accomplishments==
With the retirement of Senator [[Lawton Chiles]] in 1989, Sasser became Chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on the Budget|United Senate Committee on the Budget]]. In that role, he served as a key ally of [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Leader]] [[George J. Mitchell]], a [[United States Senate]] member of [[Maine]]. Sasser helped negotiate the 1990 budget summit agreement with President [[George H. W. Bush]]. In 1993 he engineered passage of President [[Bill Clinton]]'s first budget, which reduced the deficit by $500 billion over 10 years<ref>"[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CEED8163BF93AA35750C0A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Clinton and House Democrats Agree On Spending Cuts, but Ante Is Raised]," by Michael Wines in ''The New York Times''.</ref><ref>"[http://tech.mit.edu/V113/N12/spending.12w.html Clinton to Cut Spending Further]," by Eric Pianin and Ruth Marcus in ''The Washington Post''.</ref> but passed without any Republican votes.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

With these successes, Sasser began to work his way upward in the party leadership. When then-[[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Leader]] Mitchell announced his intention to retire, Sasser was widely expected to be elected to the position, had he won a fourth term in the Senate.<ref>{{cite news |last=Fram |first=Alan |date=May 8, 1994 |title=After 17 Years, Tennessee's Jim Sasser Emerging From Senate Anonymity |url=https://apnews.com/0ce7ef4749128fbf9915fa605272475a |publisher=Associated Press |access-date=July 13, 2019}}</ref>

==Ambassador to China==
[[File:James R. Sasser.jpg|thumb|Official photograph of Sasser as United States Ambassador to China.]]
Sasser went on to serve as [[List of ambassadors of the United States to China|ambassador to China]] during the period of alleged [[Cox Report|nuclear spying]] and the [[1996 United States campaign finance controversy|campaign finance controversy]] that involved possible efforts by China to influence domestic U.S. politics during the [[Clinton Administration]]. Sasser again gained media attention when the U.S. Embassy in Beijing was besieged after [[United States bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade|U.S. warplanes mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy]] in [[Belgrade]] during the [[NATO bombing of Yugoslavia|U.S. intervention]] in the [[Kosovo War]].<ref name=McFadden/> Shortly after the siege of the embassy was lifted, Ambassador Sasser retired (he was slated to do so before the siege, so his retirement was not a direct result) and returned to the United States.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

==Later career==
After retiring as ambassador, Sasser worked as a consultant in Tennessee and Washington, D.C., and also lectured at [[George Washington University]].<ref name=McFadden/> He later became a professor at the [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]].<ref name=McFadden/>

==Personal life and death==
Sasser married Mary Gorman in 1962, and they had two children.<ref name=McFadden/> He died from a heart attack at his home in [[Chapel Hill, North Carolina]], on September 10, 2024, at the age of 87, 20 days before his 88th birthday.<ref name=McFadden/><ref>{{cite news |last1=Sher |first1=Andy |last2=Schelzig |first2=Erik |title=Former U.S. Sen. Jim Sasser of Tennessee dies at 87 |url=https://stateaffairs.com/tennessee/politics/jim-sasser-obituary/ |access-date=September 11, 2024 |publisher=State Affairs |date=September 11, 2024}}</ref>

==Electoral history==
*'''1976 Democratic Primary for U.S. Senate (TN)'''
**Jim Sasser, 44%
**[[John Jay Hooker]], 31%
**Harry Sadler, 10%
**David Bolin, 8%
*'''1976 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)'''
**Jim Sasser (D), 52%
**[[Bill Brock]] (R) (inc.), 47%
*'''1982 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)'''
**Jim Sasser (D) (inc.), 62%
**[[Robin Beard]] (R), 38%
*'''1988 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)'''
**Jim Sasser (D) (inc.), 65%
**Bill Andersen (R), 35%
*'''1994 General Election for U.S. Senate (TN)'''
**[[Bill Frist]] (R), 56%
**Jim Sasser (D) (inc.), 42%

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
*{{Cite news |title=Surgical Precision: How Senate Power Jim Sasser Was Stomped by a Political Novice in Tennessee |url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2519/is_n4_v16/ai_16946739 |publisher=Campaigns and Elections |last=Beiler |first=David |date=April 1995 |access-date=February 22, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060211043900/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2519/is_n4_v16/ai_16946739 |archive-date=February 11, 2006}}
*{{Cite web |title=Sasser, James Ralph (1936– ) |access-date=April 22, 2007 |url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000068 |work=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress}}

==External links==
*{{C-SPAN|2358}}
*[https://collections.library.vanderbilt.edu/repositories/2/resources/1587 James R. Sasser Papers at Vanderbilt University]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Sasser, Jim}}
[[Category:1936 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:20th-century Tennessee politicians]]
[[Category:Ambassadors of the United States to China]]
[[Category:Democratic Party United States senators from Tennessee]]
[[Category:George Washington University faculty]]
[[Category:Politicians from Memphis, Tennessee]]
[[Category:United States Marine Corps reservists]]
[[Category:United States Marines]]
[[Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Nashville, Tennessee]]
[[Category:20th-century United States senators]]