Tammy Baldwin has committed her life’s work to public service because she has a deep commitment to making a difference in the lives of Wisconsin’s working families. In the proud tradition of Wisconsin’s state motto, Forward, she believes that we must always work together to help provide fairness, equality, and economic opportunity for all.
Tammy Baldwin was born in Madison, Wisconsin and raised by her grandparents in the Badger State. Her grandfather was a scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her grandmother was a gifted artist and seamstress who became chief costumer of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Theater Department.
Tammy was raised by her grandparents because her mother struggled with mental illness, chronic pain, and drug abuse. Tammy had to grow up fast, as her mother struggled with addiction to prescription drugs her entire life. When the opioid epidemic spread across Wisconsin, devastating countless families and entire communities, Tammy worked in the Senate to make sure Washington finally stepped up and supported local prevention, treatment, and recovery efforts throughout the state. She also authored and worked to pass the Jason Simcakoski Memorial and Promise Act, bipartisan legislation signed into law by President Obama that strengthens oversight of the VA’s opioid prescribing practices and provides safer and more effective care for our nation’s Veterans.
When Tammy was nine years old, she was diagnosed with a serious childhood illness similar to spinal meningitis. She spent three months in the hospital. Her grandparents had health insurance, but they weren’t allowed to list Tammy as a dependent. Their insurance wouldn’t cover her care, and they were forced to make great sacrifices to pay for Tammy’s health care.
Tammy got better, and her grandparents looked for a health insurance policy that would cover her in the future. But they discovered that because of her previous illness, they couldn’t find such a policy. Not from any insurer. Not at any price. Tammy had been branded with the words “pre-existing condition.”
Now, because of the Affordable Care Act, championed by Tammy in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate, children have protections that they didn’t have before and can’t be denied health coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
As her grandmother grew older, Tammy served as her grandmother’s primary caregiver – an extremely rewarding, but also challenging responsibility. Growing up in a grandfamily and being a caregiver shaped Tammy’s future in public service, and she led the bipartisan effort to support family caregivers by sponsoring and passing the RAISE Family Caregivers Act in the Senate which was signed into law in 2018.