Senator Ruth Ashford

Overview

Senator Ruth Ashford is a senior member of the Terran Federation Senate and chair of the Commerce Committee. At 67, she has served longer than most of her colleagues and wielded more influence over belt policy than nearly anyone in government. Her committee has shaped contract labor law for two decades.

Background

Born in London, England, Ashford is a career politician from a family of minor gentry origin. She is married with two adult children and four grandchildren. Her political career spans decades, and her position on the Commerce Committee has placed her at the intersection of government and corporate power for most of that time.

Physical Description

Tall and thin, with maintained elegance. Silver hair, always perfectly styled. Professional warmth that never quite reaches the eyes. Expensive but understated clothing. She carries herself with the practiced authority of someone who has held power long enough to wear it comfortably.

Personality

Ashford is an institutionalist to her core. She has served within the system so long that the lines between public interest and private interest blurred decades ago. She is a political survivor – she’s lasted longer than most – and she understands how the machinery of government works in ways that few others do.

Role

Ashford represents the political dimension of the belt’s power structure. Her votes and her committee’s oversight – or lack thereof – have enabled the system of exploitation that defines belt labor. She never appears in the belt; she has likely never seen it. But her decisions reach across the void and shape the lives of hundreds of thousands of workers.