- The appearance of the Evil Queen in Walt Disney Productions film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was inspired by Ms. Gahagan's performance in the movie She (1935).
- Was the last Democrat to be endorsed by Ronald Reagan. Reagan later supported Nixon for President in 1960, '68, and '72.
- Popularized the nickname "Tricky Dick" during her Senate race against Richard Nixon. She herself picked up the term from an editorial in The Independent Review.
- In an April 2016 Slate article, Karina Longworth reported that during Helen Gahagan Douglas's 1950 US Senate race against Richard Nixon, Nixon stooped to antisemitic and racist tactics to turn the electorate against her: "In the days before robocalls, human Nixon campaign staffers would call voters at home and ask if they knew that Helen Douglas 'was married to a Jew' and suggest that she was just another 'movie Jew' trying to take the country away from 'real' Americans. And white communities were mail-bombed with postcards in support of Helen, signed by the Communist League of Negro Women--a completely made-up organization whose name alone was crafted to strike fear in the hearts of white homeowners".
- Two stepsons, Gregory (b. 1920) and Melvyn (b. 1921).
- Lost the Senate race to Richard Nixon in 1950 by 680,000 votes.
- Step-grandmother of Illeana Douglas.
- Richard Nixon said of her during his 1950 Senate campaign against her: "During five years in Congress, Helen Douglas has voted 353 times exactly as has Vito Marcantonio, the notorious Communist party-line Congressman from New York. How can Helen Douglas, capable actress that she is, take up so strange a role as a foe of Communism? And why does she when she has so deservedly earned the title of 'the pink lady'?".
- Her son Peter was born in 1933. Her daughter Mary Helen was born in 1938.
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