Portrait
Tammy Baldwin
Born
11 February 1962Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Politician, US SenatorUnited States

Tammy Baldwin

The first openly lesbian woman elected to the US Congress and the first openly LGBTQ person elected to the US Senate.

Tammy Baldwin grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, raised largely by her grandparents. She studied mathematics and political science at Smith College and law at the University of Wisconsin, and worked as a lawyer.

In 1993 she was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly as an openly lesbian woman. In 1998 she was elected to the US House of Representatives – the first openly lesbian woman in Congress, and the first openly gay person elected to Congress who was not already in office.

In 2012 she won a seat in the US Senate, becoming the first openly LGBTQ senator in American history and the first woman to represent Wisconsin in the Senate. She was re-elected in 2018 and 2024.

In the Senate she has focused on health care, workers’ rights and manufacturing. In 2022 she led the negotiations on the Respect for Marriage Act, which protects same-sex marriage at the federal level and was passed with votes from both parties.

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