Category: U.S. Senator

Kelly Ayotte
Kelly Ayotte


Kelly Ayotte served as New Hampshire's United States senator from 2011 to 2017. Ayotte was born June 27, 1968, in Nashua, New Hampshire. She graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1990 with a bachelor's degree in political science. In 1993, she graduated from Villanova University School of Law with a Juris Doctor. Previously, Ayotte held the positions of deputy attorney general and the chief of the homicide unit. As New Hampshire's top murder prosecutor, Ayotte secured convictions for two defendants who had been charged with brutally killing two Dartmouth College […]
Nancy Kassebaum Baker
Nancy Kassebaum Baker


Nancy Landon Kassebaum Baker represented Kansas in the U.S. Senate from 1978 to 1997. She was the first woman elected to a full term in the Senate without her husband having previously served in Congress, and the first female senator from Kansas. She was also the first woman to chair a major U.S. Senate committee (Labor and Human Resources). Baker was born in Topeka, Kansas, on July 29, 1932. Her father was Alf Landon, governor of Kansas from 1933 to 1937 and the 1936 Republican nominee for president. She graduated […]
Tammy Baldwin
Tammy S Baldwin


Tammy Baldwin was elected to the United States Senate for Wisconsin in November 2012. She is the first woman to represent Wisconsin in the Senate and the first openly gay U.S. senator. Baldwin was born February 11, 1962, in Pamela Green, Wisconsin, and grew up in Madison, Wisconsin. She completed her bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1984 and received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1989. Previously, Baldwin served in the Wisconsin State assembly from 1993 to 1999. She also served in the U.S. […]
Barbara Boxer
Barbara L Boxer


Barbara Boxer served as a U.S. senator from California from 1993 to 2017. She was the first woman to chair the Committee on Environmental and Public Works, as well as serving as the chair of the Select Committee on Ethics, becoming the only senator to preside over two committees simultaneously. Boxer was born November 11, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York. She attended Brooklyn College and received a bachelor's degree in economics. In the 1970s, she worked as a journalist for Pacific Sun, as an aide to U.S. Representative John L. […]
Carol Moseley Braun
Carol Moseley Braun


Carol Moseley Braun was a U.S. senator from Illinois from 1993 to 1998. She was the first black female to serve in the U.S. Senate (and the only one until Kamala Harris was elected to the Senate from California in 2016), and was the first female senator from Illinois. Braun was born on August 16, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in political science and then attended the University of Chicago Law School to obtain her juris doctor in 1972. In addition […]
Maria Cantwell
Maria Cantwell


Maria Cantwell assumed office as a United States senator for the state of Washington in January 2001. Cantwell was born October 13, 1958, in Indianapolis, Indiana. She attended Emmerich Manual High School and was inducted into the Indiana Public School Hall of Fame in 2006. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in public administration from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After college, Cantwell moved to Seattle, Washington, to assist in Alan Cranston's unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1984. In 1993, Cantwell became the first Democrat to be elected to the United […]
Shelley Moore Capito
Shelley Moore Capito


Shelley Moore Capito assumed office as U.S. senator from West Virginia in 2015. Capito is West Virginia's first female senator. Capito was born November 26, 1953, in Glendale, West Virginia. She completed a Bachelor of Arts in zoology from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, in 1975. In 1976, she completed her Master of Education from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Capito worked as a college counselor and served as a member in the West Virginia State House of Delegates from 1997 to 2001. Capito then represented West […]
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton


Hillary Rodham Clinton served as secretary of state from January 2009 to February, 2013. She was the 2016 Democratic nominee for president of the United States, the first women to be nominated for U.S. president on a major party ticket. Prior to serving as secretary of state, Clinton served as the first lady of Arkansas from 1983 to 1992, first lady of 42nd United States President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, and United States senator (D-NY) from 2001 to 2009. She is the only U.S. first lady to be […]
Susan Collins
Susan Collins


Susan Collins assumed office as a United States senator for Maine in January 1997. Collins was born in Caribou, Maine, on December 7, 1952. In 1975, she graduated magna cum laude from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. For twelve years, she worked on the staff of U.S. Senator William Cohen. Following that, Collins worked in the cabinet of Maine Governor John McKernan. After five years in the post, Collins served as New England administrator of the United States Small Business Administration. In June 1994, Collins became the first […]
Catherine Cortez Masto
Catherine Cortez Masto


Catherine Cortez Masto assumed office as a U.S. senator from Nevada in January 2017. She is the first woman to represent Nevada in the Senate and the first Latina senator in U.S. history. Cortez Masto was born in 1964 Las Vegas, Nevada. Her father, Manny Cortez, was the longtime head of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and also served as a Clark County commissioner and as an attorney for the county. Cortez Masto earned a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Nevada, Reno in […]