Tammy Duckworth
Tammy Duckworth has represented Illinois in the US Senate since 2017. She is the first senator to give birth while serving in office.
Duckworth served in the Reserve Forces for 23 years before retiring from military service in 2014 at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She was elected to the Senate in 2016 after representing Illinois’s Eighth Congressional District in the US House of Representatives for two terms.
In 2004, Duckworth was deployed to Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot for the Illinois Army National Guard. Her helicopter was hit by an RPG and Duckworth lost her legs and partial use of her right arm.
She spent the next year recovering at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where she quickly became an advocate for her fellow Soldiers and testified before Congress about caring for our Veterans and wounded warriors. Following her recovery, she became Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs. In 2009, President Obama appointed Duckworth to be Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
In the House, Duckworth served on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, where she was ranking member of the Transportation and Public Assets subcommittee.
In the Senate, Duckworth serves on the Armed Services Committee; the Environment & Public Works Committee; the Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee; and the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee. Duckworth was ranked as "a highly effective lawmaker" and as the most effective freshman Democratic Senator by the Center for Effective Lawmaking for the 115th Congress.
Position:
US Senator
Location:
Illinois
Previous Office(s) Held:
US House of Representatives, D-IL; Assistant Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs
Prior LPAC Endorsement: 2014