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Elly M. Peterson (June 5, 1914 – June 9, 2008), also known as "Mrs. W. Merritt Peterson", was an American politician from Charlotte, Eaton County, Michigan. She was married to the late Colonel W. M. Peterson and was an overseas Red Cross volunteer in World War II. She was an officer in the American Cancer Society, an active member of the Congregational Church, American Legion Auxiliary, a lifetime member of the NAACP, and a 1984 inductee into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. She attended what is now William Woods University in Fulton, Mo. ==Career== She was vice chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1961 to 1963 and a candidate for U.S. Senator from Michigan in 1964. Asked to run by Governor George W. Romney, Peterson would later comment that she picked up the gauntlet and ran for the Senate because no one else would run against the popular incumbent, Philip Hart, particularly in a year with her party divided over its presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater. Winning just 35.3 percent of the vote, she nevertheless bettered Goldwater's tally in Michigan—33.1 percent—and did so with little funds; to accomplish that much was a tribute to her energy, organization and down-to-earth appeal. In 1965, she became the first woman to serve as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. She was also the first woman in U.S. History to chair a Republican state central committee, which she did from 1965-69. The Michigan Political History Society eventually selected Elly Peterson as the best Republican state chairwoman in the last fifty years. She was assistant to the chair of the Republican National Committee from 1969-71. In 1979, the Supersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Peterson's name and picture. Eventually Peterson conceded she'd become an independent. She laughed that, "I recently received a call from a Republican group saying they wanted me in a directory of important Republican women, and I had to tell them they needed to do their homework better." In her last year, she was a supporter of Hillary Clinton's presidential bid, both as a feminist and because she didn't feel America's residual racial prejudices would allow Barack Obama to win. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Elly M. Peterson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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