James Ralph Sasser

Jim Sasser attended the university in 1954–55, and then completed his undergraduate and law studies at Vanderbilt. Sasser began his political career by assisting in Estes Kefauver’s 1960 US Senate campaign. He served as Tennessee Democratic Party chairman from 1973 to 1976. He was elected to the US Senate in 1976 and was twice reelected. In 1995 Sasser was a fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, when he was appointed ambassador to the P    eople’s Republic of China, a position he held until 1999.