Tammy Baldwin, Wisconsin Democrat, becomes the first openly gay Senator
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) beat Republican Tommy Thompson for Wisconsin’s open U.S. Senate seat on Tuesday, becoming the nation’s first openly gay senator.
Tammy Baldwin official photo
“I am honored and humbled and grateful, and I am ready to get to work — ready to stand with Barack Obama, and ready to fight for Wisconsin’s middle class,” said Baldwin at her victory party.
Thompson, who served as Secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of George W. Bush, retired from politics in his concession speech.
“I’m not going to run again,” Thompson, 70, who survived a divisive ideological primary, told supporters on Tuesday. “But I certainly am going to be supporting people to do the right things for the right reasons to build Wisconsin and build America.”
The Senate race was the most expensive in state history with the two candidates raising at least $65 million, Reuters reported.
“Now, I am well aware that I will have the honor to be Wisconsin’s first woman U.S. senator. And I am well aware I will be the first openly gay member of the United States Senate,” she added, with the crowd drowning her out and chanting “Tammy! Tammy!”
“But I didn’t run to make history,” she continued. “I ran to make a difference –- a difference in the lives of families struggling to find work and pay the bills, a difference in the lives of students worried about debt and seniors worried about their retirement security, a difference in the lives of veterans who fought for us and need someone fighting for them and their families when they return home from war, a difference in the lives of entrepreneurs trying to build a business and working people trying to build some economic security.”
Baldwin will be succeeded in her House seat by state Assemblyman Mark Pocan, a Democrat who is also openly gay.
