In 2010 Lee Whitnum ran for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut (D). Richard Blumenthal won the primary and the seat. 

In 2008, Whitnum ran for U.S. Congress in the 4th Congressional District in Connecticut (D). She lost in the Primary to Congressman Jim Himes.  

Whitnum’s latest book, Anti-AIPAC, not Anti-Semitic: The Israel Lobby's Dangerous Control of Congress is due out soon.

She is the author of two novels: Hedge Fund Mistress, a mainstream novel, and What About the Dead? a young adult novel.

Whitnum holds a masters degree (edm) from Harvard University in Administration, Planning and Social Policy, and a Bachelor of Science degree (BS) in Computer Science from the University of Maryland.

Whitnum, who is single, resides in Greenwich. She has no children. Her father, Paul Whitnum, was a British banker; her mother, an American teacher. Whitnum is secular Protestant. 

She is a 14 year union member (SAG), her mother was a union member (NEA) most of her working life and Lee's grandmother was a union member (ILGWU) for 35 years, her entire working life. Lee supports unions.

Lee has a heightened awareness of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of her father, who was a British officer in the 1940s. In 1947, the Zionist terrorist bombing at the King David Hotel resulted in the deaths of ninty-one people, including 70 British officers. Lee believes if the average American knew the truth about this topic, they would feel as strongly as she does.