{{Short description|American politician (1951–2020)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Susan Baker Weddington | image = | birth_date = April 6, 1951 | birth_place = Detroit, Michigan, US | death_date = September 1, 2020 | death_place = San Antonio, Texas, US | office = Chairman of the Texas Republican Party | term_start = 1997 | term_end = 2003 | preceded = Tom Pauken | succeeded = Tina Benkiser | alma_mater = Trinity University | spouse = Ernest Caldwell, Jr. d.<br>Robert Weddington (1983–2015) | children = 1 | occupation = Businesswoman }}

'''Susan Baker Weddington''' (April 6, 1951 – September 1, 2020) was a businesswoman who from 1997 to 2003 served as party chair of Texas Republican Party during the administrations of Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry<ref>{{cite web|url= https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sanantonio/name/susan-weddington-obituary?id=8285826|title=Susan Baker Weddington|publisher=legacy.com|accessdate=June 2, 2024}}</ref> She was the first female chair of either major party in Texas.

==Background==

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Weddington moved to San Antonio before she was eighteen months of age.<ref name=laj/> She is one of two children of the late Louis C. Baker and the former Elaine Baird. She has a brother, David Baker.<ref name=mothersobit>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sanantonio/obituary.aspx?n=elaine-baker&pid=155009437&fhid=8909 |title=Elaine Baker obituary|publisher=The San Antonio Express-News |date=December 12, 2011|accessdate=June 26, 2020}}</ref>

Weddington graduated in 1969 from Alamo Heights High School in San Antonio.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ahh69.com/class_classmates.cfm|title=Alamo Heights High School (Class of 1969) |publisher=ahh69.com|accessdate=June 26, 2020}}</ref> and after that from Trinity University in San Antonio, from which she received a bachelor's degree in communications and was for a time an instructor of photojournalism.<ref name=laj>Robbins, Mary Alice. "Texas Republicans elect state's first female party chief," The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, August 2, 1997.</ref>

==Political life== The firm Kinetic Concepts formerly employed Weddington.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.texastribune.org/2011/08/26/who-perry-supporter-james-leininger/ |title=The Skinny: James Leininger|date=August 26, 2011|work=The Texas Tribune|accessdate=June 26, 2020}}</ref> A Christian conservative activist, Weddington became interested in politics as the mother of a teenaged son visiting the Texas State Capitol in Austin. Her particular interests at the time were education and product liability laws.<ref name=chairstarrole>"Texas GOP chair has star role," ''The Laredo Morning Times,'' March 19, 2015.</ref>

In 1990, Weddington placed a black wreath that read "Death to the Family" at the door of the campaign headquarters in Austin for the Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Ann Richards, the state treasurer. At the state Republican convention that year, she participated in a prayer rally and called upon the Almighty to "watch over the caucus rooms and the convention hall."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/3/20/1500105/-Texas-Gov-Ann-Richards-She-represented-inclusion |title=Texas Gov. Ann Richards: "She represented inclusion" |work=Daily Kos |author=Denise Oliver Velez|date=March 20, 2016|accessdate=June 26, 2020}}</ref>

In 1997, Weddington was unanimously elected state chairwoman by the Republican state executive committee to succeed conservative Tom Pauken of Dallas, who resigned after three years in the position to run for state attorney general.<ref name=laj/> She was Pauken's choice as his successor. For part of her tenure, the vice chairman was the conservative author and activist David Barton. Weddington held support from both the religious conservative wing of her party and the fiscal conservatives. Chuck Anderson, then the executive director of the Christian Coalition, described Weddington as "very, very well respected by members of the party from all ideological stripes." In 2000, Republicans held 1,600 of the approximately 4,000 elected offices in Texas but all statewide offices. Weddington said that she was determined to bring the party to long-term majority status, with particular emphasis on the state legislature.<ref name=chairstarrole/>

In 2002, Weddington broke with tradition as state chair when she became involved in a heated Republican primary for the District 25 state Senate seat in San Antonio in which Republican Jeff Wentworth ran successfully for re-nomination. One of her predecessors as chairman, Fred Meyer of Dallas, had pointedly refused to become involved in such primary races but stood with the general election nominees regardless of policy positions.<ref>Gromer Jeffers, Jr., "Fred Meyer, who built the Dallas and Texas GOP into a dominant force, dies at age 84," ''The Dallas Morning News,'' September 24, 2012.</ref>

When she stepped down as state chairwoman in 2003, her party had gained a firm footing in major political offices in Texas. Weddington for six years then headed the OneStar Foundation, a non-profit organization formed by Governor Rick Perry to connect such organizations with resources and expertise to accomplish their missions and to promote volunteerism.<ref name=onestar>"Susan Weddington President/CEO OneStar Foundation, faithworksconference.com, March 19, 2015.</ref> She was succeeded as chairman by another woman, Tina Benkiser, a lawyer from Houston.

==Personal life== Weddington retired in 2009, and Perry named Elizabeth Seale her successor at the OneStar Foundation.<ref>"San Antonio Exec Named President of OneStar Foundation," ''Fund Raising Success Magazine,'' February 12, 2009.</ref> In the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary, Weddington came out of retirement to endorse Rick Perry, who defeated two female challengers, including U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.<ref>"Former Texas GOP Chair Susan Weddington Endorses Gov. Perry for Re-election," Texans for Rick Perry, Rickperry.org, October 15, 2009.</ref> Weddington retired to Gillespie County near Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country with her second husband, George Robert "Bob" Weddington, whom she married in San Antonio on April 1, 1983.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.texasmarriagerecords.org/marriage-of-george-weddington-and-susan-baker.html|title=The Marriage of George Weddington and Susan Baker|work=texasmarriagerecords.org|accessdate=June 26, 2020}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before=Tom Pauken}} {{s-ttl|title=Chair of the Texas Republican Party|years=1997–2003}} {{s-aft|after=Tina Benkiser}} {{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Weddington, Susan}} Category:1951 births Category:Businesspeople from Texas Category:Christians from Texas Category:Texas Republican state chairmen Category:Texas Republicans Category:Women in Texas politics Category:2020 deaths