Representative Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat who stands a good chance of being the first openly gay candidate elected to the Senate, has a story she likes to tell about the event that propelled her into politics.
“I remember graduating from college, being very interested in public service, yet wondering what I could aspire to be,” she said in an interview. “It was that year [1984], when I graduated from college, that Geraldine Ferraro was nominated for vice president and I watched in my first efficiency apartment, a little one-room place. I choked up and I thought at that moment: I can do anything. I can aspire to anything.”
With Baldwin on the ballot, facing Republican former governor Tommy Thompson, and votes in four states to legalize same-sex marriage, there is a strong chance this election day could deliver a similar moment.
It is already galvanizing the movement for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) rights, winning Baldwin’s race national attention. US President Barack Obama held his second campaign rally with Baldwin in 48 hours on Monday morning.
During a brief stop at a small campaign office in a working-class area of Milwaukee on Sunday, Baldwin was thronged by volunteers from the Victory Fund, which works to get LGBT candidates to elected office.
They had traveled from as far as Florida, New York and California to volunteer for her campaign. Outside groups poured money into the race, allowing Baldwin to pulverize Thompson’s record. Senator Al Franken went canvassing door-to-door.
Polls show the Senate race virtually tied between Baldwin and Thompson, who has towered over Wisconsin politics for a quarter of a century. Ad spending on both campaigns topped US$65 million, making Wisconsin one of the most expensive Senate races in the country.
However, Baldwin insists her sexual orientation is rarely a topic of conversation.
“It almost never comes up,” she said. “It’s been a [election] race that has been flat out on economic issues.”
To a lesser extent, a win for Baldwin — an “ultra-liberal” in the words of her opponent — would also be a slap at Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who broke up the unions and then saw off a Democratic recall vote last summer.
Baldwin is a strong supporter of most of the policies the Tea Party activists despise.
She supported and even wrote part of the healthcare bill — the section enabling children to remain on their parents’ insurance until age 26. She voted for the climate change law in 2009, and wanted to deepen investment in renewable energy. She has had doubts about sanctions on Iran.
Thompson, on the other hand, wants to repeal Obama’s healthcare act, expand oil drilling and adopt Representative Paul Ryan’s deficit plan.
Baldwin, 50, has represented the liberal college town of Madison in the House of Representatives for 14 years.
Thompson has been out of politics for 12 years working as a healthcare lobbyist. He was elected to four terms as governor and served as health secretary in the administration of former US president George W Bush.
Most people following the race think it will go down to the last votes — Baldwin herself is predicting a much tighter finish than the last two elections. However, she still dared hope out loud that her own race could make history.
If she wins, her presence would force the Senate to engage more fully with LGBT issues.
“If you are not in the room, the conversation is about you. If you are in the room, the conversation is with you. We never had an openly LGBT member of the US Senate and even though there are strong pro-equality allies who serve there, it has always been a conversation about a group of people. So this changes everything,” she said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of