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In U.S. Senate, a record-breaking moment for women The 113th Congress, beginning Jan. 3, has a record number of female senators, with voters in November shaking up the old-boy network. The number of women has grown from 17 to 20. Here is a look at each one.
NEW: Elizabeth Warren — Massachusetts (D)
Warren had envisioned an agency to protect Americans from dubious banking practices behind the 2008 Wall Street collapse and bailout, but some of her now-fellow senators lobbied hard to stop her from heading the agency. The Harvard law school professor and bankruptcy expert was praised highly for her speech at the Democratic National Convention. Read the article.
Gretchen Ertl
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Reuters
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NEW: Tammy Baldwin — Wisconsin (D)
The U.S. representative from Madison took a major jump on Election Day, becoming the first openly gay member of Congress's upper chamber — and Wisconsin's first woman senator. Baldwin, who amassed one of the most liberal voting records in Congress, defeated Tommy Thompson, a former four-term governor. "I didn't run to make history,'' Baldwin told supporters in a victory speech. "I ran to make a difference.'' Read the article.
Andy Manis
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AP
NEW: Deb Fischer — Nebraska (R)
Fischer, a state legislator and farm owner, ran as a rural alternative against two city lawyers to win the Republican nomination for the Senate, then defeated better-known Bob Kerrey, an ex-senator, to become Nebraska's first female senator since 1954. More about Fischer.
Dave Weaver
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AP
NEW: Maize Hirono — Hawaii (D)
Hirono, a former U.S. representative, is the first Asian American woman elected to the Senate. Born in Japan, Hirono is Buddhist. She defeated former governor Linda Lingle for the seat vacated by Democrat Daniel F. Akaka.
Marco Garcia
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AP
NEW: Heidi Heitkamp — North Dakota (D)
A former North Dakota attorney general, Heitkamp is a supporter of the Keystone XL pipeline to bring fuel from tar sands to refineries near the Gulf of Mexico. She narrowly won the open seat vacated by Democrat Kent Conrad.
Will Kincaid
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AP
Claire McCaskill — Missouri (D)
Few had predicted McCaskill would win reelection in this red state, but she had the fortune of running against far-right Rep. Todd Akin, who triumphed in a very bitter Republican primary. Akin, against federal funding for school lunches and student loans, created a nationwide stir after talking about ''legitimate rape.'' McCaskill, who won just eight days after her mother died, told supporters: “There is one person missing, and I just gotta tell you, Mom, this one’s for you!” Read the article.
Jeff Roberson
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AP
Kirsten Gillibrand — New York (D)
Gillibrand, a lawyer who is conversational in Mandarin, won a traditionally Republican U.S. House district in 2006 and 2008, and a special 2010 Senate race after her appointment to succeed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who became President Obama’s secretary of state. Gillibrand was a champion of the successful effort to repeal the ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' provision for gays in the military. (At left, with husband Jonathan, and sons Henry, 4, and Theodore, 8).
Kathy Willens
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AP
Amy Klobuchar — Minnesota (D)
The first woman elected senator in Minnesota. Klobuchar is a former county attorney and adviser to former vice president Walter Mondale. The daughter of a second-grade teacher and a newspaper sports columnist, Klobuchar has degrees from Yale University and the University of Chicago.
Hannah Foslien
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AP
Debbie Stabenow — Michigan (D)
A former Michigan House speaker and U.S. representative, Stabenow is chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee. She has two degrees from Michigan State University.
Carlos Osorio
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AP
Dianne Feinstein — California (D)
Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor, became with colleague Barbara Boxer California's first female senators when both won in 1992. On Nov. 6, Feinstein won an easy reelection victory over nonprofit executive Elizabeth Emken.
Ben Margot
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AP
Barbara Boxer — California (D)
Boxer chairs the Senate's Ethics as well as its Environment and Public Works committees. A former journalist and stockbroker, she was a former U.S. representative and the first female president of the Marin County Board of Supervisors.
J. Scott Applewhite
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AP
Maria Cantwell — Washington (D)
Sen. Maria Cantwell is a former business executive, U.S. representative and state representative. Reelected to a third term, she is the state's second-ever female U.S. senator, after Patty Murray.
Mark Mulligan
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AP
Patty Murray — Washington (D)
Murray was a member of the ''supercommittee'' appointed last year to address the nation's burgeoning national debt.
Melina Mara
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The Washington Post
Kelly Ayotte — New Hampshire (R)
A former state attorney general, Ayotte is a member of a historic all-female New Hampshire delegation in Washington that includes the state's other senator and two representatives. Ayotte, 44, had been mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate to 2012's GOP nominee, Mitt Romney.
Charlie Neibergall
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AP
Jeanne Shaheen — New Hampshire (D)
Shaheen, a former teacher, is the first U.S. woman to be elected as a governor and as U.S. senator. She is the state's first Democratic senator since 1980. (At left, she looks before introducing President Obama at a Nashua, N.H., rally Oct. 27).
Jonathan Ernst
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Reuters
Susan Collins — Maine (R)
On a 1971 trip to Washington as a high school senior, Collins spoke for two hours with then-senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), whose seat she now holds. In 1994, she was the first woman nominated by a major party for governor of Maine but lost to Angus King, her new Senate colleague. She ran successfully for senator in 1996 to succeed William Cohen after he became President Bill Clinton’s secretary of defense.
Karen Bleier
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AFP/Getty Images
Barbara Mikulski — Maryland (D)
Mikulski is the longest-serving female senator and longest-serving woman in the U.S. Congress, taking office in 1977. A former social worker and community organizer, she started in politics as a member of the Baltimore City Council in 1971.
Melina Mara
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The Washington Post
Lisa Murkowski — Alaska (R)
Murkowski, daughter of former U.S. senator and governor Frank Murkowski, looked as if she would be leaving the Senate in 2010 when she lost a Republican primary to tea-party-backed candidate Joe Miller. Instead, the Georgetown graduate launched a write-in campaign and won in the general election.
Brendan Smialowski
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Getty Images
Mary Landrieu — Louisiana (D)
Landrieu, daughter of former New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu and sister of Mayor Mitch Landrieu, was a former real estate agent and state representative and state treasurer before winning a U.S. Senate race in 1996. She became a national spokeswoman for victims of Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed her lakeside home.
Carolyn Kaster
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AP
Kay Hagan — North Carolina (D)
Hagan, daughter of a former Lakeland, Fla., mayor and niece of former U.S. senator Lawton Chiles, was a state senator whose underdog contest successfully ousted Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole in 2008.
Lynne Sladky
/
AP
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Section:/politics/decision2012
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