74 Facts About Tammy Baldwin

Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin was born on February 11,1962 and is an American politician and lawyer serving since 2013 as the junior United States senator from Wisconsin.

Tammy Baldwin served three terms from Wisconsin's 78th Assembly district from 1993 to 1999, and seven terms as the United States congresswoman from Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district from 1999 to 2013.

Tammy Baldwin was elected to the United States Senate in 2012, and reelected in 2018 and 2024.

Tammy Baldwin is the first openly lesbian woman elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly, the first openly lesbian woman and first woman elected to the US House from Wisconsin, and the first openly LGBT person and first woman elected to the US Senate from Wisconsin.

Tammy Baldwin has a progressive voting record on healthcare, reproductive rights, and LGBT rights.

Tammy Baldwin was raised by her grandparents and spent Saturdays with her mother, who suffered from mental illness and opioid addiction.

Tammy Baldwin graduated from Madison West High School in 1980 as the class valedictorian.

Tammy Baldwin served one year on the Madison Common Council to fill a vacancy.

Tammy Baldwin ran to represent Wisconsin's 78th Assembly district in central Madison in 1992.

Tammy Baldwin was one of just six openly gay political candidates nationwide to win a general election that year.

In 1998, US Congressman Scott Klug of the 2nd district, based in Madison, announced he would retire, prompting Tammy Baldwin to run for the seat.

Tammy Baldwin's ads leaned into the fact that Wisconsin had never sent a woman to Congress, and many of her ads targeted younger voters.

Tammy Baldwin's campaign drew strong turnout in Dane County, using a team of volunteers, many of whom were students.

Tammy Baldwin is the first woman elected to Congress from Wisconsin.

Tammy Baldwin is the first openly gay non-incumbent elected to the House of Representatives, and the first open lesbian elected to Congress.

In 2000, Tammy Baldwin was reelected, defeating Republican nominee John Sharpless by 8,902 votes.

Tammy Baldwin ran as the Democratic nominee against Republican nominee Tommy Thompson, who had formerly been governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Tammy Baldwin announced her candidacy on September 6,2011, in a video emailed to supporters.

Tammy Baldwin ran uncontested in the primary election, and spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention about tax policy, campaign finance reform, and equality in the United States.

Tammy Baldwin was endorsed by the editorial board of The Capital Times, who wrote that "Tammy Baldwin's fresh ideas on issues ranging from job creation to health care reform, along with her proven record of working across lines of partisanship and ideology, and her grace under pressure mark her as precisely the right choice to replace retiring US Senator Herb Kohl".

Tammy Baldwin was succeeded in Congress by State Representative Mark Pocan, who had earlier succeeded her in the state legislature.

Tammy Baldwin was featured in Time's November 19,2012, edition, in the Verbatim section, where she was quoted as saying "I didn't run to make history" on her historic election.

Tammy Baldwin narrowly defeated Republican nominee Eric Hovde even as Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump won Wisconsin.

In 2003, Tammy Baldwin served on the advisory committee of the Progressive Majority, a political action committee dedicated to electing progressive candidates to public office.

In 2012, Baldwin described herself as a progressive in the mold of former Wisconsin governor and US senator Robert M La Follette.

Tammy Baldwin was one of 16 female Democratic senators to sign a letter in 2013 endorsing Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee in the 2016 presidential election.

In 2018, Tammy Baldwin was one of 25 Democratic senators to cosponsor a resolution in response to findings of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change report and National Climate Assessment.

In 1995, Tammy Baldwin proposed the creation of a review board to investigate the deaths of prison inmates.

Tammy Baldwin was one of 17 senators to sign a letter to President-elect Donald Trump in 2016 asking him to fulfill a campaign pledge to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

Tammy Baldwin was one of six senators to sign a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in 2017 requesting their "help in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the 340B program", a Trump administration rule mandating that drug companies give discounts to health-care organizations presently serving large numbers of low-income patients.

Tammy Baldwin sponsored the Reward Work Act of 2018, which proposed to guarantee the right of employees in listed companies to elect one-third of the board of directors.

Tammy Baldwin signed a letter to United States Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta in 2019 that advocated that the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration make a full investigation into a complaint filed in May by a group of Chicago-area McDonald's employees that detailed instances of workplace violence, such as customers throwing hot coffee and threatening employees with firearms.

Tammy Baldwin supports Buy America rules and has advocated for their inclusion in federal funding bills.

Tammy Baldwin was one of 12 senators to sign a letter to President Obama in 2016 asserting that the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership "in its current form will perpetuate a trade policy that advantages corporations at the expense of American workers" and that there would be an "erosion of US manufacturing and middle class jobs, and accelerate the corporate race to the bottom" if provisions were not fixed.

In 2024, Tammy Baldwin was one of a handful of Democrats credited with ending President Biden's proposed Indo-Pacific trade agenda.

In 2020, Tammy Baldwin voiced her opposition to Israel's plan to annex parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Tammy Baldwin attended Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address to Congress in July 2024 and was the only Democratic representative from Wisconsin in attendance.

Tammy Baldwin was among the 133 members of the House who voted in 2002 against authorizing the invasion of Iraq.

In 2023, Tammy Baldwin voted with a bipartisan majority to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force in Iraq.

Tammy Baldwin supports repealing the 2001 AUMF for the War on Terror.

Tammy Baldwin voted for a resolution by Rand Paul and Chris Murphy in 2017 that would block Trump's $510 million sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia that made up a portion of the $110 billion arms sale Trump announced during his visit to Saudi Arabia the previous year.

Tammy Baldwin voted against tabling a resolution spearheaded by Bernie Sanders, Chris Murphy, and Mike Lee in 2018 that would have required Trump to withdraw American troops either in or influencing Yemen within the next 30 days unless they were combating Al-Qaeda.

Tammy Baldwin was one of 18 senators to sign a letter to Thad Cochran and Barbara Mikulski in 2016 requesting that the Labor, Health and Education subcommittee hold a hearing on whether to allow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to fund a study of gun violence.

Tammy Baldwin was a cosponsor of the Military Domestic Violence Reporting Enhancement Act in 2017, a bill to create a charge of domestic violence under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and stipulate that convictions must be reported to federal databases to keep abusers from purchasing firearms within three days in an attempt to close a loophole in the UCMJ whereby convicted abusers retain the ability to purchase firearms.

Tammy Baldwin was a cosponsor of the NICS Denial Notification Act in 2018, legislation developed in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that would require federal authorities to inform states within a day after a person failing the National Instant Criminal Background Check System attempted to buy a firearm.

In 2022, Tammy Baldwin voted for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a gun reform bill introduced after a deadly school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

An outspoken advocate of single-payer, government-run universal health care since her days as a state legislator, Tammy Baldwin introduced the Health Security for All Americans Act, which would have required states to provide such a system, in 2000,2002,2004, and 2005.

Tammy Baldwin ultimately voted for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, which became law in 2010.

Tammy Baldwin is credited with writing the ACA provision that allows Americans to stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26.

Tammy Baldwin said she hoped a public option in the ACA would lead to a single-payer system.

The first version of the ACA Tammy Baldwin voted for included a public option, but the final version did not.

In 2009, Tammy Baldwin introduced the Ending LGBT Health Disparities Act, which sought to advance LGBT health priorities by promoting research, cultural competency, and non-discrimination policies.

In 2019, Tammy Baldwin was one of 11 senators to sign a letter to insulin manufactures Eli Lilly and Company, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi about their increased insulin prices depriving patients of "access to the life-saving medications they need".

Tammy Baldwin was one of eight senators to cosponsor the Palliative Care and Hospice Education and Training Act, a bill intended to strengthen training for new and existing physicians, people who teach palliative care, and other providers on the palliative care team that grants patients and their families a voice in their care and treatment goals.

In 2022, Tammy Baldwin voted with Democrats to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which capped the cost of insulin for seniors on Medicare at $35 a month.

In 2024, Tammy Baldwin co-sponsored the Stop Predatory Investing Act to ban corporate investors that buy up more than 50 single-family homes from deducting interest or depreciation on those properties.

Tammy Baldwin voted in 2013 for S 744, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.

In 1993, Tammy Baldwin became the first openly lesbian woman elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly and one of few openly LGBT people elected to political offices in the United States at the time of her election.

In 2019, Tammy Baldwin was one of 18 senators to sign a letter to Pompeo requesting an explanation of a State Department decision not to issue an official statement that year commemorating Pride Month or to issue the annual cable outlining activities for embassies commemorating Pride Month.

In 2022, Tammy Baldwin helped pass the Respect for Marriage Act.

On December 16,2024, Tammy Baldwin led over 20 Democratic senators in introducing an amendment to the Senate version of the NDAA 2025 that removed the restriction on TRICARE coverage for gender-affirming care for minors.

Tammy Baldwin voted nine times in favor of other similar bills.

Tammy Baldwin's vote received renewed attention in Wisconsin's 2012 US Senate race, when Tommy Thompson's campaign released an ad about it that PolitiFact rated "Mostly False".

Tammy Baldwin was a cosponsor of a bipartisan resolution led by Gary Peters and Jerry Moran in 2019 that opposed privatization of the United States Postal Service, citing the USPS as a self-sustained establishment and noting concerns that privatization could cause higher prices and reduced services for its customers, especially in rural communities.

Tammy Baldwin's office had received the report in August 2014 but did not take action until January 2015, when Tammy Baldwin called for an investigation after the Center for Investigative Reporting published details of the report, including information about a veteran who died from an overdose at the facility.

Tammy Baldwin's office did not explain why they waited from August 2014 to January 2015 to call for an investigation.

Tammy Baldwin was the only member of Congress who had a copy of the report.

In February 2015, Tammy Baldwin fired her deputy state director over her handling of the VA report.

Tammy Baldwin said, "we should have done a better job listening to and communicating with another constituent with whom we were working on problems at the VA", and that she had started a review of why her office had failed to act on the report.

In 2016, Tammy Baldwin introduced a bill named after the affected veteran, Jason Simcakoski, to strengthen opioid prescribing practices and guidelines at the VA.

In November 2017, Tammy Baldwin co-sponsored legislation designed to strengthen opioid safety in the Department of Veterans Affairs.

In 2021, Tammy Baldwin co-sponsored a bill to expand VA health benefits for veterans who were exposed to burn pits at Karshi-Khanabad Air Base in Uzbekistan, known as K2 Air Base.

Tammy Baldwin was in a relationship with Lauren Azar for 15 years; the couple registered as domestic partners in 2009.

Tammy Baldwin was baptized Episcopalian but considers herself "unaffiliated" with a religion.