Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) was elected to the Senate in 2001, and she serves as chair of both the Senate Subcommittee on Aviation Operations, Safety and Security, and the Senate Subcommittee on Energy. She is also a member of the Senate Committee on Finance, the Committee on Indian Affairs and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) was elected to the Senate in 1992. Before that, she served as the 38th mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988 and was elected the first female president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) assumed office in 2009, appointed by then-Gov. David Paterson (D) to replace Hillary Clinton, who joined the Obama administration as Secretary of State. Before that, Gillibrand was twice elected to the House in a district in upstate New York. She has since served on the Senate Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Armed Services; Environment and Public Works and Foreign Relations.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) became the first woman elected to the Senate from Minnesota when she won her campaign in 2006. She serves as chairwoman of the Senate Subcommittee on Competitiveness, Innovation and Export Promotion and is a member of the Committees on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Commerce, Science and Transportation, as well as the Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) was the first woman elected to the Senate from Missouri in 2006. From 1983-1988, she was a member of the Missouri House of Representatives. She is the chair of the Senate Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight as well as a member of the Senate Committees on Armed Services; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Special Committee on Aging.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) was elected to Senate in 2000. Previously, she represented Michigan as a member of the House of Representatives from 1997-2001. She was also the first woman to preside over the Michigan state House.

Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) was elected to Congress in 1998, making her the first woman in the Wisconsin delegation. If elected to the Senate in the open seat being vacated by Sen. Herb Kohl (D), she would be the first woman in the state to serve in the upper chamber.

Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), currently in her seventh term in Congress, could be the first female U.S. senator from Nevada. In the first six months of 2011, she raised more money for her campaign than her opponent, incumbent Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.). An October 2011 poll showed the two dead even in the general election, both receiving 45 percent of support.

Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) could be both the first Asian-American woman elected to the Senate and the first female Hawaiian senator. She serves on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the Committee on Ethics, and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Former Republican Hawaii governor Linda Lingle was the first woman and the first Jewish governor of Hawaii, serving from 2002-2010. From 1999-2002, she served as the elected chair of the Hawaii Republican Party. In October 2011, she announced she would be running to succeed retiring Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), competing against Rep. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii).

Longtime consumer advocate and Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren would become the first woman elected to the Senate from Massachusetts if she defeats Republican incumbent Sen. Scott Brown in the 2012 Senate election.  Elizabeth Warren has built a following nationwide and has raised over $40 million in her race for the Senate.

Cynthia Dill  is an American lawyer and Maine politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she serves in the Maine Senate, representing the 7th district which is composed of South Portland, her hometown of Cape Elizabeth, and a small portion of Scarborough.

Elizabeth Diane Emken  is an American Republican politician who is the Republican nominee for United States Senator from California in the 2012 election, who will challenge incumbent US SenatorDianne Feinstein in the November general election. Emken is the former Vice President for Government Relations at Autism Speaks.

Debra Strobel “Deb” Fischer  is a member of the Nebraska Legislature and Nebraska’s Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate. Her rural legislative district is in the north-central portion of the state and is the largest geographically in Nebraska.^[1] She is running for a Senate seat against former Senator Bob Kerrey.

Republican Wendy Long  is running for US Senate in New York against Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.  Long is an attorney who has worked for the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Supreme Court. She served as a press secretary for two Republican senators from 1986 to 1991 and as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1997 to 1998.

Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) is running for U.S. Senate in the seat formerly held by Kent Conrad.  She served as the state’s Attorney General and is best known as one of the chief negotiators in the national settlement with the tobacco companies

Linda McMahon (R- CT) Linda McMahon, co- founded Titan Sports with her husband and is former president and CEO of WWE. She will challenge Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy for a chance to represent Connecticut in the Senate. This is her second Senate run. Connecticut has never sent a woman to the Senate.