23 Facts About Diane Watson

Diane Edith Watson was born on November 12,1933 and is a former American politician who served as US Representative for, serving from 2003 until 2011, after first being elected in the 32nd District in a 2001 special election.

Diane Watson worked as a psychologist, professor, and health occupation specialist before serving as a member of the Los Angeles Unified School Board.

Diane Watson was a member of the California Senate from 1978 to 1998, and the US Ambassador to Micronesia from 1999 to 2000.

Diane Watson was re-elected four times, and retired after the end of the 111th Congress.

Diane Watson was educated at Dorsey High School, Los Angeles City College and the University of California, Los Angeles, where she earned her BA in Education and became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Diane Watson earned an MS from California State University, Los Angeles in School Psychology and a PhD in Educational Administration from Claremont Graduate University in 1987.

Diane Watson taught elementary school and was a school psychologist in the Los Angeles public schools.

Diane Watson has lectured at California State University, Long Beach and California State University, Los Angeles.

Diane Watson was a health occupation specialist with the California Department of Education's Bureau of Industrial Education, and served on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.

Diane Watson was elected to the California State Senate from 1978 to 1998.

Diane Watson was the first African American woman in the California State Senate.

In 1992, Diane Watson ran for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

Diane Watson stepped down to run in the April 2001 Democratic primary election, which was called to nominate a candidate to replace Congressman Julian Dixon, who had died in office five months earlier.

Diane Watson won with 33 percent of the vote in a multi-candidate field, then carried the district with 75 percent of the vote in the June 2001 special election.

Diane Watson decried incidents of violence and racism against Arab Americans that she believed were a result of retribution for the September 11,2001, terrorist attacks.

Diane Watson was one of 31 House Democrats who voted not to count the 20 electoral votes from Ohio in the 2004 United States presidential election.

Congresswoman Diane Watson supported withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, opposed media consolidation, supported expanding welfare coverage, and opposed President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security.

Diane Watson opposed the Bush tax cuts, saying they were unaffordable.

Diane Watson opposed the Cherokee Nation's March 2007 vote to amend its constitution to limit citizenship to only those descendants with at least one Indian ancestor on the Dawes Roll.

Diane Watson noted that when freedmen were granted citizenship in the tribe in 1866 by a treaty which the Cherokee Nation made with the US government, it was without restriction to those freedmen with Indian ancestry.

In June 2007 Diane Watson introduced a bill to sever US relations with the tribe and revoke its gaming privileges unless the Cherokee Nation restored citizenship in the tribe to descendants of Cherokee freedmen.

Diane Watson argued in favor of humanitarian assistance for African nations that had been decimated by the disease.

Diane Watson defeated her challengers in the California June 3 primary, and defeated Republican David Crowley in the November 4,2008, election.