So, you think you know Tammy Baldwin? Tammy Suzanne Green Baldwin has lived much of her life in the public eye. Tammy—as most supporters casually call her—is personable. Meet her, and she’ll listen, ask questions, and she’ll encourage you to share your stories. Baldwin is running for a second term in the U.S. Senate, where she’s become known for her work protecting health care, serving veterans and taking on Wall Street and Big Pharma. She is among the most progressive Democratic senators, yet she’s also established a reputation for bipartisanship because she frequently works with Republicans to get things done.
During this midterm election, due to the raging opioid crisis in Wisconsin and her mother’s death last August, she revealed a story that is intensely personal: her mother’s mental illness and addiction to painkillers. To learn more about what inspires and motivates Sen. Baldwin, read on. She shares some insight on things you may already know about her and a few things that will surprise even Wisconsinites who have closely followed Baldwin’s career.
You probably know…
Sen. Baldwin’s signature issue has long been health care with a focus on the 2.4 million Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions who could lose their health care if Republicans succeed in repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
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As a 9-year-old girl, Baldwin spent three months in the hospital with a condition similar to spinal meningitis, followed by months at home in a full-body cast. (Diagnosis was delayed because she quietly endured severe back pain, until her fever spiked to around 107 degrees.) Cost was a struggle for her grandparents because she was not on their health insurance policy. After she recovered, they looked to clarify custody to insurance, which was nearly impossible. “I was a common pre-ACA casualty…I had a pre-existing condition.”
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“I believe that every American should have access to affordable, quality health care,” says Baldwin, promising to protect that right.
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Health care and pay equity were the first issues Baldwin worked on as a recent college graduate, interning for Gov. Tony Earl in the mid-’80s. She was sure of her interest in government, having majored in political science (and a double major in mathematics) at Smith College. But, she had not decided if she wanted to work as staff or run for elected office. Watching the Dane County Board in action at age 24, she says she was hit with the realization, “I’m as smart as they are. I can do that.”
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You probably know…
Baldwin was the first woman from Wisconsin elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1998, and the first woman from our state elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012.
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Long before she shattered those glass ceilings, Baldwin was appointed to serve out a departing Madison Common Council member’s term after joining the county board during law school. She was at her first meeting listening to male voices questioning the fiscal responsibility of putting a bus stop at Madison Area Technical College’s Truax campus when there was one several blocks away on East Washington. Then, female voices chimed in, explaining that many women work during the day and take classes at night. This was a safety issue along those lengthy, dark blocks. The men were surprised; they hadn’t thought of that. For Baldwin, this stands out as the first time she saw the difference it made to have women at the table.
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Another path Baldwin paved, long after coming out in college, was becoming the first out lesbian to serve in Congress, and the first openly LGBTQ U.S. Senator.
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One of her most memorable accomplishments in local government was establishing and chairing Dane County’s AIDS task force after pushing to convince other elected officials that Wisconsin would soon have HIV/AIDS cases and needed to know how to best respond.
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Pres. Donald Trump memorably proclaimed during an April 2017 visit to Kenosha that he supported Sen. Baldwin’s proposal to require certain water infrastructure projects be built with American iron and steel. He even added, “I agree with her 100%.”
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Baldwin estimates that Trump has signed 10 of her proposals into law.
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Baldwin was raised by her grandmother, Doris Green, and grandfather, biochemist David Green.
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Her grandmother was head costume designer in the UW Theater Department. “My grandmother was a really talented seamstress; she’d make Elizabethan costumes...I was kind of raised back stage with her. And, even before grade school, she taught me how to sew.” Baldwin inherited her grandmother’s sewing machine. As a senator, she sews everything from Christmas gifts to suit jackets, designing them based upon something she sees that inspires her. “I’ve had some failures, but it’s ok, I can always go buy a suit at Banana Republic.” As crazy busy as she is, why this hobby? “I can see the results really quickly,” she responds, laughing. “Congress can be a little slow.”
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Baldwin worked with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on the RAISE Family Caregivers Act, which passed in January and requires the federal government to devise a strategy to support unpaid family caregivers nationwide.
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That policy work was informed by a very difficult time in Baldwin’s personal life. As her grandmother’s caregiver, she watched her become increasingly frail, being preyed upon by fly-by-night “charitable” groups and getting behind on bills she’d always been meticulous about paying. “By that time, I was in Congress, and I was paying her bills, arranging visitors and felt terrible guilt when I couldn’t be there,” she recalls. After her grandmother fell and broke her hip, things declined further. “I was in shock that she needed care beyond what I could provide, and when I asked if I could pick a good nursing home where she had friends, I was told she could only go to a few where there were beds available.”
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Baldwin cites her amendment to the Affordable Care Act that allows young people to stay on their parents’ insurance through age 26 as her proudest legislative accomplishment.
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As a local county official, long before fighting for debt-free college in Congress, she pushed to allow college students to qualify for public assistance if they needed it. “Prior to that, they didn’t qualify, because they were deemed to be choosing to be poor,” she says.
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Baldwin has frequently stood up to the National Rifle Association (NRA), pushing for such commonsense gun safety measures as universal background checks, banning bump stocks and keeping guns out of schools. In fact, the NRA spent around $600,000 against her in the 2012 race. After the Pulse night club shooting in Florida in 2016, she read all 49 names of the dead on the Senate floor while displaying their photos. “Thoughts and prayers are important, but they are not enough,” she said. “We have to act…our silence is unacceptable.”
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Baldwin owns a Ruger SR9c pistol and says she enjoys target shooting and is a “pretty good” markswoman.
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Baldwin has worked to pass bills with several prominent Republicans; these include the late Sen. John McCain (protecting Veterans Administration whistleblowers); Sen. Marco Rubio (restitution of Holocaust-era property losses); and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (opioid prescription reform in the Veterans’ Administration as well as trade issues with China).
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While in the Wisconsin Assembly, Baldwin authored a bill with then-Rep. Scott Walker that, she recalls, concerned campaign finance reform; it was later signed into law by Gov. Tommy Thompson, who would end up being her future political opponent. She told New York Times Magazine, “I feel deceived by this governor,” given how his views had changed.
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This past June, Baldwin joined Seth Meyers to drink a New Glarus Spotted Cow beer on national television.
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Andy Samburg of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Saturday Night Live” fame is her third cousin, a fact noted on his IMDb profile.
