Tammy Duckworth (she/her)

US Senator, Illinois

Senator Tammy Duckworth is an Iraq War Veteran, Purple Heart recipient, and former assistant secretary of the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 2014. She was elected to the US Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the US House of Representatives for two terms. 

While in the House, Duckworth was an advocate for working families and job creation, introducing bills like her bipartisan Friendly Airports for Mothers (FAM) Act to ensure new mothers have access to safe, clean lactation rooms when traveling through airports, which is now law. 



In the Senate, Duckworth advocates for practical, common-sense solutions, including investing in communities that have been ignored for too long and making college more affordable for all Americans. In 2018, after Duckworth became the first Senator to give birth while serving in office, she sent a message to working families across the country about the value of family-friendly policies by securing a historic rules change that allows Senators to bring their infant children onto the Senate floor.