Nancy Skinner

Radio Personality

Nancy Skinner is a radio talk show host and outspoken liberal who has also run for the U.S. Senate and Congress. From 1998-2003 Skinner was co-host of Ski and Skinner, a weekend radio show on Chicago station WLS, and later she was a co-host of Doug Stephan's Good Day, the nationally syndicated morning radio talk show. Skinner was suspended by WLS after announcing on the air in July 2003 that she would run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Illinois Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. (The seat was eventually won in 2004 by Democrat Barak Obama.) Skinner then worked as a morning show host on Detroit radio station WDTW-AM before announcing in 2006 that she would run for Congress in Michigan's 9th district. Prior to her radio career, Skinner worked as a financial analyst and environmental activist. She is a 1987 graduate of the University of Michigan.

Extra credit: Skinner also has performed as a stand-up comedian... She is no relation to Michigan leadership trainer Nancy Skinner... Fitzgerald's Senate seat was previously held by Carol Moseley-Braun, Illinois' first-ever female senator.

Other American commentators-turned-candidates: Pat Buchanan, Gore Vidal, Alan Keyes and George Wilbur Peck.