Tammy Baldwin on Thursday was sworn in
as the junior senator from Wisconsin.
Baldwin was elected on November 6,
making her the first openly gay senator in U.S. history.
“I'm very aware that I will have the
honor to be the first woman senator from Wisconsin,” Baldwin said
in her acceptance speech on election night. “And I'm well aware
that I will be the first openly gay member of the United States
Senate.”
“I didn't run to make history,” she
added. “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.”
The 50-year-old Baldwin replaced
retired Senator Herb Kohl. Baldwin first ran for Congress in 1998
after serving 8 years in the Wisconsin Assembly.
Chuck Wolfe, president and CEO of the
Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a group which supports gay
candidates, called Baldwin's election “real progress.”
“LGBT Americans have finally broken
through a glass ceiling that held firm for more than two centuries,”
Wolfe said in an email to supporters. “This is real progress – a
victory for us all. And this is a moment to smile, celebrate and
raise a glass to a record number of out federal lawmakers.”