Tammy Baldwin, Country's First Out Senator, Announces Run for Re-Election

Lesbian U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat of Wisconsin, announced Wednesday her plan to run for a third term.

“Wisconsin’s working families deserve a Senator who’s going to fight for them—not shady special interests or big corporations. We’ve made a lot of progress, but the stakes have never been higher and our work isn’t over yet,” Baldwin wrote on Twitter.

While several Wisconsin Republicans are considering running for Baldwin’s seat, no one has officially announced yet.

Baldwin has been a champion for LGBTQ+ legislation in the Senate, most recently leading the effort that established the Respect for Marriage law that President Joe Biden signed last year. She was one of the senators who introduced the legislation in the Senate. The Senate passed the measure by an overwhelming majority 61-36. The bill's passage came after months of negotiations with Republican senators.

In 1998, Baldwin became the first out non-incumbent LGBTQ+ person elected to the House of Representatives and then to the Senate in 2012. In addition, she was the first woman to be elected to either chamber from Wisconsin.

Baldwin began her career as a Dane County Board Supervisor for four terms on the Dane County Board of Supervisors, and in 1992, she was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly as a State Representative for the 78th District, serving three terms.

Wisconsin, a key battleground state, will be a focal point for candidates in the presidential election in 2024. Last week, in a bellwether race that was followed nationwide, Democrat Janet Protasiewicz won a key race, by a wide margin, for a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court.