A freshman Senate class was sworn in Jan. 3, bringing diverse skills and experience ? not to mention agendas ? to the legislative body. Whether the 14 newest senators help break partisan gridlock, or refuse to work across the aisle, will be the test for the 113th Congress.
Twelve were elected on Nov. 6, including three Republicans, eight Democrats, and an independent. In addition, a Republican and a Democrat were appointed to vacant seats after the election. Here is a look at the 14 and what they bring to the Senate:
Tammy Baldwin (D) of Wisconsin
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a progressive Democrat, made history on election night, becoming the first openly gay person and first Wisconsin woman elected to the Senate. But in her election night acceptance speech, she was quick to downplay those firsts.
?I?m well aware that I will have the honor to be the first woman senator from Wisconsin. And I?m well aware that I will be the first openly gay member of the United States Senate,? Ms. Baldwin said. ?I didn?t run to make history ? I ran to make a difference.?
To Baldwin, that includes securing funding for education, retirement security for seniors, resources for veterans, and support for small businesses, issues she carries over from her 14-year tenure in the House.
Elected in 1998, Baldwin?s voting record has consistently been ranked as one of the most liberal, according to the National Journal. She opposed the war in Iraq, cosponsored a bill to impeach then-Vice President Dick Cheney, and heavily criticized Rep. Paul Ryan?s budget blueprint. Another top issue for Baldwin is access to healthcare: She championed a section in Obama?s health-care reform law that allowed young people to stay on their parent?s insurance until age 26.
Wisconsin voters have alternated between electing Republicans and Democrats, so the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl was up for grabs. Baldwin defeated four-term Gov. Tommy Thompson by 5.6 percentage points, downplaying her liberal record but focusing her attacks on Mr. Thompson's proposal to abolish Medicaid and Medicare.
She raised $14 million during the campaign with top contributions from EMILY?s List, Moveon.org, and the League of Conservation Voters. Some $65 million was spent by both candidates and by outside groups, in a vigorous attempt by Republicans to regain the seat.
Before her election to the House, Baldwin served in the Wisconsin Assembly for six years and on her local County Board of Supervisors six years.
She is slated to serve on four committees in the new session: Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), Aging, Homeland Security and Government Affairs (HSGAC), and Budget.
Ted Cruz (R) of Texas
Will tea party-backed Sen. Ted Cruz be a no-compromise conservative? As Americans push for more bipartisan cooperation in Washington, Senator Cruz?s brand of conservatism could make him a polarizing figure.
?What it takes is backbone, the willingness to stand and fight for those principles in the face of opposition and derision,? Cruz told the National Journal, summarizing how he would fight for the conservative agenda. ?Of those who have firm principles, even fewer have the backbones to stand for those principles when the heat is on.?
In the primary, Cruz upset Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, beating him by 14 percentage points. He then defeated Democratic challenger Paul Sadler by 16 percentage points in the general election.
To Cruz, the election presented voters with opposite visions for America?s future.
?Two visions: We can continue down the road of the Obama Democrats, towards more and more spending, debt and government control of the economy and our lives,? he said in his speech at the Republican National Convention. ?Or we can return to the founding principles of our nation ? free markets, fiscal responsibility, and individual liberty.?
Party leaders hope that Cruz, a Cuban American, will appeal to a younger generation of Hispanic voters, a bloc that the GOP has failed to attract at the polls. He is the first Hispanic to be elected to the Senate from Texas and the third to serve in the Senate.
Cruz entered the Senate race after three years of practicing law at a Houston-based law firm where he specialized in US Supreme Court and national appellate litigation. During that time, he also taught Supreme Court litigation at the University of Texas School of Law.
Cruz served as solicitor general of Texas from 2003 to 2008, prior to entering private practice. He also worked in the George W. Bush administration, joining the 2000 campaign as a domestic policy adviser. He served as associate deputy general at the Department of Justice and then director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission.
Cruz was assigned to five Senate committees for the new session: Armed Services; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Judiciary; Aging; and Rules and Administration.
Joe Donnelly (D) of Indiana
Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana vowed to bring ?Hoosier common sense? to the Senate during his campaign, a promise the moderate Democrat is likely to keep during the 113th Congress.
Mr. Donnelly comes to the Senate after a three-term tenure in the House where he was a member of the Blue Dog Coalition ? a group of conservative-leaning Democrats more likely to vote against the party line on issues such as the budget and national security.
?I want to be a senator for everyone, and that?s what our tradition has been,? he told the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette after his win.
His willingness to work across the aisle will be a refreshing quality for a Senate that has been marred by partisan gridlock.
Donnelly defeated Richard Mourdock, who received ample support from the conservative super-PAC American Crossroads, by 5.6 percentage points. Fellow Republicans, including Mitt Romney, tried to distance themselves from contentious comments Mr. Mourdock made about his anti-abortion stance.
?I think that even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen,? Mourdock said during a debate with Donnelly on Oct. 23.
Donnelly replaces Sen. Richard Lugar, a moderate Republican who held the seat for 36 years. Mourdock defeated Lugar in the state primary by appealing to anti-Washington attitudes within his party.
But where Mourdock?s remarks polarized voters, Donnelly stuck to a bipartisan mantra.
Donnelly pointed to his political record as evidence of bipartisanship: he opposes abortion, worked with Republicans on the farm bill (though it didn?t pass), and takes a tough stance on China?s trade practices.
Donnelly is also a pro-gun Democrat, but after the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., he told CNN that he is now open to gun-control legislation.
?You know, I?m a dad too,? Donnelly said. ?My kids are a little older now, but I think of when they were 6 and 7 years old, and I think we have a responsibility to make sure this never happens again.?
Donnelly will serve on the Agriculture, Aging, and Armed Services committees.
?I am going to remain first and foremost focused like a laser on jobs,? Donnelly told the Journal Gazette. Other issues he says he will focus on include education, energy independence, reducing the national debt, and infrastructure improvement.
Deb Fischer (R) of Nebraska
A former cattle rancher and state legislator, Sen. Deb Fischer is the only new Republican woman elected to the Senate this year.
A conservative with borderline tea party leanings, Senator Fischer believes in a limited federal government, gun rights, and absolutely no tax increases.
?I don't want to see added burdens on people who create jobs. I think that's the wrong way to go about this,? she said in an interview with PBS NewsHour, referring to the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Fischer said she defeated her Democratic opponent, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, by 16 percentage points because Nebraskans knew she would never vote to raise taxes.
The answer to the nation?s fiscal problems is spending cuts, she said. As a state senator, Fischer said she based her decisions on priorities that she believed were the state?s responsibility.
?And those were public education, public safety, public infrastructure, and taking care of those who truly can't care for themselves,? she said in the NewsHour interview. ?We have to do that on the federal level as well, because government can't be everything to everyone.?
Despite her position on spending and taxes, Fischer says she will be able to work across the aisle in the Senate, pointing to her eight years in Nebraska?s unicameral legislature.
?My style is to develop relationships with people you work with? regardless of party, she told the National Journal.
Fischer entered politics in 1990 while raising three sons on a ranch in rural Valentine, Neb. Her first elected position was a seat on the Valentine Rural High School Board of Education, and later she became president of the Nebraska Association of School Boards.
While serving in the legislature from 2004 to 2012, Fischer took on leadership roles including the chairmanship of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. She championed legislation that reallocated a portion of the state?s sales tax revenue to road infrastructure.
An underdog in the Senate primary race, Fischer defeated two better-known Republicans: Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg. She got a boost from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin?s endorsement and televsion ads sponsored by Joe Ricketts, the TD Ameritrade founder. She earned 41 percent of the vote compared with Mr. Brunings?s 36 percent and Mr. Stenberg?s 19 percent.
Fischer was selected to serve on five committees in the Senate: Armed Services; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; Indian Affairs; and Small Business.
Jeff Flake (R) of Arizona
Jeff Flake enters the Senate as one of the leading Republican voices on the issue of fiscal responsibility.
?With the exception of Rep. Paul Ryan, perhaps no candidate for federal office in this election cycle is more committed to forcing sanity back into the nation's finances,? wrote the Arizona Republic in endorsing Mr. Flake.
During his six terms in the House, Flake took a hard stand against earmarks, leading reform on the practice and also ruffling the GOP leadership. He also went against the party line by voting against President Bush?s No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 and the 2003 legislation that would have expanded benefits for prescription drugs under Medicare. He also joined Democrats supporting an end to the trade embargo with Cuba and prohibiting workplace discrimination against gays, according to the National Journal.
In the Senate, he plans to pursue his ?limited government, economic freedom, and individual responsibility? mantra ? principles he advocated as executive director of the Goldwater Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank.
Flake also expects to play a role in bipartisan immigration reform this year, he told The Hill, joining fellow Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida.
In an interview with PBS NewsHour, he said immigration is ?a problem that just gets bigger and worse, particularly for a border state like Arizona. And this is one that's going to require working across the aisle, where both parties take the plunge on certain items.? And certainly after this election, Republicans realized that not just for substantive policy reasons, for political reasons as well, it behooves us to move ahead.?
Flake defeated Democrat Richard Carmona, a former US surgeon general, by a narrow margin: 3.9 percentage points. Though Mr. Carmona gained on Flake in the polls, Arizona is a solid Republican state ? voters haven?t elected a Democrat to the Senate in 18 years. He replaces retiring Republican Jon Kyl, who served three terms.
Flake is a fifth-generation Arizonan, raised in Snowflake, Ariz., a town named after his great-great-grandfather. Flake, a Mormon, did his missionary work in South Africa and Zimbabwe. He also moved to Namibia in 1989 to run the Foundation for Democracy, which monitored the democratization process in the country.
Flake is slated to serve on four committees: Foreign Relations, Energy and Natural Resources, Judiciary, and Aging.
Martin Heinrich (D) of New Mexico
Martin Heinrich?s election to the Senate gives the Democrat a new platform to pursue his top issues: energy independence and environmental conservation.
?Our nation faces a tremendous challenge in our need to reverse climate change and to lead the world in clean energy technology,? said Mr. Heinrich in a statement for the League of Conservation Voters during the campaign. ?Here in New Mexico, we already know the potential for clean energy to create jobs and jumpstart our economy. Through American ingenuity and the right policies we can unleash the full potential of this growing industry and put even more Americans to work building the clean energy economy.?
With an engineering background, Senator Heinrich favors innovation as the solution to the country?s energy problems, which he discussed with Energy Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D) of Oregon, according to the Hill. On Dec. 12, the Democratic leadership assigned Heinrich to the Energy Committee as well as the Intelligence and Joint Economic committees.
Heinrich told The Hill that he sees New Mexico?s federal research laboratories as potential innovation hubs, going beyond their current role in promoting nuclear deterrence.
His main rival, Republican Heather Wilson, described Heinrich as ?an extreme environmental candidate? in an interview with the Washington Post. She pointed to his two-term record in the House of Representatives during which he supported cap-and-trade policies and opposed the construction of the Keystone pipeline.
During the campaign, Heinrich received donations from environmental groups including the Sierra Club, Conservation Voters of New Mexico, and Defenders of Wildlife. These groups also funded ads against Ms. Wilson, whom Heinrich beat 51 percent to 45.5 percent on Election Day.
Joining fellow Democratic Sen. John Udall, Heinrich benefitted from President Obama?s ground game in the state, especially among Hispanic voters. New Mexico voters went for Mr. Obama over Mitt Romney by almost 10 points, 52.9 percent to 43 percent.
?When a lot of folks were running away from the president in 2010, we hosted him in the South Valley,? Heinrich told the Washington Post. ?There was so much enthusiasm. It is very hard for Republicans to overcome those demographics in a presidential election year.?
Before being elected to the House in 2008, Heinrich served as the state?s natural resources trustee. From 2003 to 2007, he was a member of Albuquerque?s city council, serving one year as president.
Heidi Heitkamp (D) of North Dakota
Underdog Sen. Heidi Heitkamp barely defeated her Republican rival on Election Day ? the margin of victory was 1 percentage point.
The independent-leaning Democrat ?ran a pitch-perfect campaign,? according to Politico, which enabled her to squeeze past Rep. Rick Berg in a state where Republicans expected to gain a seat.
During her ?longshot? campaign, Ms. Heitkamp distanced herself from the Obama administration, criticizing the president for not supporting coal and oil ? two of North Dakota?s main industries. Before running for Senate, Heitkamp was director of a Dakota Gasification plant, which takes carbon dioxide from coal processing and sends it to Canada for use in oil extraction ? a process used in clean coal technology.
?Is there such a thing as clean coal?? Chris Matthews asked her in an interview.
?You betcha,? she replied.
Heitkamp defines herself as a moderate intent on breaking partisan gridlock in Congress.
?Partisan gridlock in Congress this year was so strong that it claimed the farm bill. Never mind that the farm bill supports 16 million jobs across the country and that agriculture is one of the few bright spots in our economy,? she wrote in an editorial for The Hill. ?As the next senator from North Dakota, my No. 1 job is to see a farm bill finally passed and signed into law. Agriculture is still king in North Dakota, and a farm bill means our farmers and ranchers will have a stable crop insurance program they can rely on heading into next season.?
Assigned to the Agriculture Committee, Heitkamp will get her chance to influence farm legislation. Her other committee assignments include Banking, Homeland Security, Small Business, and Indian Affairs.
Heitkamp wrote in her op-ed that when she was Attorney General (1992 to 2000), working across the aisle ?wasn?t a luxury but a way of life.? During her tenure, she worked on the national settlement with the tobacco industry. North Dakota has received $336 million so far in the settlement, which has helped fund antismoking campaigns aimed at teenagers, contributed to a schools trust fund, and supported projects to deliver clean water to households.
Her campaign got a boost from former President Bill Clinton, who stumped on her behalf in North Dakota, calling her a ?common-sense bipartisan.? In a radio ad, he touted her record as Attorney General, saying she even beat the Fish and Wildlife Service in court during his presidency.
Mazie Hirono (D) of Hawaii
Sen. Mazie Hirono is already racking up a list of firsts: She is the first Asian-American woman, Japanese immigrant, and Buddhist elected to the Senate.
Hawaii has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1970. So, despite the incredible campaign efforts of former Republican Gov. Linda Lingle ? she created a TV channel and aired her speeches, endorsements, and ads around the clock ? then-Congresswoman Hirono defeated her challenger by more than 25 percentage points (62.6 to 37.4 percent).
One advantage for Senator Hirono is her personal connection to President Obama (he beat Mitt Romney by more than 40 percentage points in the Aloha State), who supported her campaign. Obama said he needed Hirono?s ?cooperative style and commitment to middle class families in the Senate,? in a campaign ad.
Hirono was assigned to three committees: Armed Services, Judiciary, and Veterans' Affairs. She will also focus on a clean energy agenda.
?In the US Senate, I'm determined to continue reordering America's energy priorities ? moving us from an economy where fossil fuel exploration makes only a few people wealthy, to an economy based on renewable energy innovation that creates jobs for thousands of people here in Hawaii and protects our air and water for generations to come,? she wrote in Honolulu?s Civil Beat.
Hirono joins the Senate after three terms in the House, where she served on Education and Labor, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Small Business committees. Her voting record ranked 26th most liberal, according to the National Journal, a record more liberal than 90 percent of her House colleagues.
Prior to her tenure in the House, Hirono worked in state politics ? 14 years as a state representative and eight years as lieutenant governor. In 2002, she lost the gubernatorial race to Ms. Lingle. She entered politics soon after receiving her law degree from Georgetown with a focus in public interest law.
Hirono immigrated to Hawaii from Japan in 1955 with her mother and brother. She became a naturalized US citizen in 1959 ? the same year Hawaii became a state.
Tim Kaine (D) of Virginia
Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine overcame a barrage of attack ads in his bid for the Senate. He defeated Republican George Allen, another former governor, in one of the most expensive campaigns of the 2012 cycle.
Negative ads attacking Mr. Kaine?s ties to the Obama administration (he was chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2009 to 2011) started airing a year before the election. Outside groups spent more than $28 million attacking him.
?The outcome in Virginia spoke very clearly that grassroots can beat out big checks and outside ads,? he said in a press conference after the election. He defeated Mr. Allen 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent.
During the campaign, Kaine took the unusual approach of meeting with people who did not support him in an attempt to cultivate bipartisan cooperation before he was even elected. It?s an approach he will use in Washington to find common ground on divisive issues.
Kaine said his first order of business is to work with his Senate colleagues to find long-term solutions to the debt and deficit issues, reported the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
As governor (2005 to 2009) Kaine dealt with similar issues to the national fiscal problems. He worked to balance the commonwealth?s budget by negotiating with a Republican legislature and consenting to spending cuts.
?You just can?t cut your way to prosperity,? he said in an interview with PBS NewsHour. ?That is why we do have to have a budget deal that finds fixes on both sides of the balance sheet, both expenses and revenues.?
The new senator will get a chance to influence the fiscal debate as a member of the Budget Committee. The Democratic leadership also assigned him to the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees.
?These important committees will enable me to work on issues that matter to Virginians, including our nation?s fiscal challenges, issues affecting military personnel, veterans, and their families, and workforce development,? Kaine wrote on his Facebook page.
He began his political career in 1994 when he was elected to the Richmond City Council. In 1998 he became mayor, and then lieutenant governor in 2001. Before his political career, Kaine practiced civil rights law for 18 years.
Angus King (I) of Maine
Will Angus King be the king of bipartisanship in the Senate? During his campaign, the popular former governor of Maine repeatedly promised he would help break partisan gridlock in Congress, a tall order considering Washington?s polarization drove away his predecessor, moderate Republican Olympia Snowe.
Mr. King refused to disclose which party he would caucus with during the campaign ? he is the first independent elected to the Senate from Maine. After meeting with Senate leaders, he announced on Nov. 14 his choice to caucus with the Democrats. They said he could maintain his independence on issues and votes and still be included in the committee process.
?By associating myself with one side, I am not in automatic opposition to the other,? he said in a statement about his decision. ?In the situation of a Republican House, a Democratic Senate but with substantial powers in the minority, and a Democratic president, no one party can control the outcome of our collective deliberations. As Bill Clinton might say, it?s just arithmetic.?
His decision served him well, as the leadership assigned him to four key committees: Armed Services, Intelligence, Budget, and Rules.
His gubernatorial track record suggests he may turn out to be a successful middleman. After being elected governor in 1993, King facilitated a deal between Democrats and Republicans after they failed to pass a state budget. A legacy from his second term (Mainers reelected King by 59 percent) includes a program that provided laptops to every seventh- and eighth-grade student in the state.
He ran for governor after successful careers in both the alternative energy industry and law. He also hosted a local television show, ?Maine Watch,? on Maine public broadcasting for 20 years.
King left a lecturing position at Bowdoin College in Brunswick to reenter the political fray, but his popularity as governor laid the groundwork for his campaign victory.
King maintained a double-digit lead in the polls through most of the campaign. On Election Day, he earned 52.8 percent of the vote, compared with Republican Charlie Summer?s 30.7 percent and Democrat Cynthia Dill?s 13.2 percent.
Unconstrained by partisan issues, King?s campaign focused on the dysfunction of Congress. His campaign positions included supporting a ?No Budget, No Pay Act,? filibuster reform, and campaign finance reform. He called his opponents to reject money from ?super-PACs? and out-of-state donors.
Chris Murphy (D) of Connecticut
Chris Murphy may be the youngest senator, but he enters with six years of congressional experience already under his belt.
Elected to the House in 2006, then-Congressman Murphy spent three terms focusing on health-care reform and domestic manufacturing. He supported President Obama?s Affordable Care Act, fought for the end of the ?don?t ask, don?t tell? ban on gays serving openly in the military, and advocated for the end of the Defense of Marriage Act. To promote US manufacturing, Murphy founded the Buy American Caucus, a bipartisan group that advocates for creating incentives for companies that keep jobs in the United States.
Most recently, he was a member of the Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Government Reform committees.
Murphy replaces retiring Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat turned independent, who served four terms. He defeated Linda McMahon, a former chief executive of World Wrestling Entertainment, by 12 percentage points even though Ms. McMahon outspent him three to one on TV ads. McMahon had spent $42.6 million by the end of October, much of it from her personal wealth, reported the National Journal. She called Murphy a career politician, and criticized his personal financial management.
He spent four years in the Connecticut state Senate, where he served as chairman of the public health committee. He helped pass a workplace smoking ban and created the state?s Stem Cell Investment Act, which allotted $100 million over 10 years for embryonic and adult stem cell research.
Murphy graduated from University of Connecticut School of Law in 2002 and practiced real estate and banking law while serving in the state Senate. Previously he served four years in the state House, beginning in 1998.
The Senate Democratic leadership assigned Murphy to three committees: Joint Economic; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP); and Foreign Relations.
Another issue that will be on Senator Murphy?s agenda: gun control.
A few days after the Dec. 14 tragedy in Newtown, Conn., Murphy and fellow Sen. Richard Blumenthal attended a Newtown United meeting where citizens gathered to discuss what they could do to prevent mass shootings. They told the attendees that they planned to push for gun control legislation.
The framework for the legislation has not yet been defined, but Murphy disagrees with the National Rifle Association?s approach.
?The NRA has now made itself completely irrelevant to the national conversation about preventing gun violence, by saying that the answer to the tragedy in Newtown is to put more deadly semi-automatic assault weapons on the streets and into our schools,? he told NewtownPatch.
Brian Schatz (D) of Hawaii
Sen. Brian Schatz is not technically the newest of senators. Vice President Joe Biden swore him into the 112th Congress on Dec. 27, filling the seat of the late Sen. Daniel Inouye, who served as Hawaii?s senator for 50 years.
Senator Schatz cast several important votes in his first week on the job: He supported the fiscal cliff deal and voted for a disaster aid package, which would have provided $60.4 billion for damage caused by hurricane Sandy.
Now as Hawaii?s senior senator, by one week, Schatz will turn his attention to securing federal funding for the Aloha state and fighting global warming. He has been assigned to the Commerce, Energy, and Indian Affairs committees.
?Over the next year, one of Hawaii's critical priorities is to identify the various federal funding streams that have been coming to Hawaii and stabilize them to the extent possible,? Schatz said at press conference.
Gov. Neil Abercrombie appointed Schatz, his lieutenant governor, to the seat. Schatz will serve until 2014 when the state will have a special election. He plans to run then and again in 2016, when the original term ends, according to The Associated Press.
Governor Abercrombie and Schatz won the 2010 gubernatorial election. As lieutenant governor, Schatz launched the Fair Share Initiative ? an effort to attract more private and public investment in the state.
From 1998 to 2006, Schatz was a member of the state House of Representatives, serving as House majority whip, chair of the Economic Development Committee, vice-chair of Water, Land, and Ocean Resources, and vice-chair of Consumer Protection and Commerce. From 2002 to 2010, Schatz was chief executive officer of Helping Hands Hawaii, a community social service organization.
Whether Schatz will work across the aisle in the Senate is yet to be seen. David Chang, chairman of the Hawaii Republican Party, has his doubts.
?He had a reputation for being quite partisan while serving in the House, and even as lieutenant governor,? Mr. Chang told PBS NewsHour. ?And in Hawaii, it's very easy to only work with Democrats and not have to do anything with Republicans since we are the minority party.?
One thing is certain though: Schatz will be a big supporter of the president?s agenda. He served as the Obama Campaign chairman in 2008, and they attended the same high school (though at different times).
?I?ve been a supporter of his from the very beginning,? Schatz told reporters while traveling to Washington on Air Force One.
Tim Scott (R) of South Carolina
Tim Scott is the first black senator in South Carolina?s history and also the first black Republican senator from any Southern state since the 1880s.
As the only African American serving in the Senate, he represents an image of diversity for a party that has struggled to engage black voters, a demographic that historically votes Democratic.
But Senator Scott?s hard-right political record may prevent him from garnering widespread approval.
Appointed by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) to replace two-term Republican Sen. Jim DeMint, an early leader of the tea party movement who resigned in December to head the conservative Heritage Foundation, Scott will continue to champion his predecessor?s tea party principles.
?I can walk away from the Senate knowing that someone is in this seat that is better than I am that will carry the voice of opportunity conservatism to the whole country in a way that I couldn?t do,? Mr. DeMint said at a press conference.
Scott comes to the Senate after a brief tenure in the House. He was elected in 2010 on a wave of tea party support. During his time in the House, he led antiunion legislation, attacking the National Labor Relations Board. Governor Haley commended his antilabor agenda during his appointment announcement, saying his support helped save a Boeing plant in South Carolina, which is a right-to-work state.
He doesn?t compromise his conservative ideals, even amid pressure from congressional leadership.
?Yeah, I?m not much of a compromiser,? he told the National Journal, referring to his refusal in 2011 to vote for raising the debt ceiling, despite a request that he do so from House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio.
Scott started his political career in 1995 when he was elected to Charleston?s city council. In 1996, he was the campaign co-chairman for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond in his last election. In 2008, he became the only black Republican in South Carolina?s Statehouse. Scott defeated Senator Thurmond?s son, Paul, in his 2010 congressional bid. He rose quickly in the House ranks as one of the two freshmen selected for the Elected Leadership Committee, and he was asked to serve as Deputy Whip.
?Our nation finds itself in a situation where we need some backbone,? Scott said during his appointment press conference. ?We need to make very difficult decisions.?
Republican Senate leaders assigned Scott to five committees: Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions; Aging; and Small Business.
Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts
Will Sen. Elizabeth Warren be able to live up to the late Sen. Edward Kennedy?s legacy?
?It was exactly 50 years ago tonight that Ted Kennedy was first elected to the United States Senate,? Ms. Warren told supporters on election night. ?We miss his passion, his commitment, his energy, and his fight for working families.?
During the campaign, Warren continually criticized her opponent, Sen. Scott Brown, for caring more about ?tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires? than working, middle-class families in Massachusetts. Warren, who raised more money than any other Senate candidate, defeated Brown by 7.4 percentage points in one of the most watched races of 2012.
Although Senator Brown shared Kennedy?s bipartisanship strategy, his conservative values did not suit Massachusetts? traditional liberalism, wrote the Boston Globe in its endorsement for Warren.
?She?s a relentless striver whose life story represents the best of American upward mobility,? the editorial said. ?As a young mother, she worked her way through community colleges and state universities to become the nation?s top expert on financial consumer protection.?
As a lawyer, Warren specialized in bankruptcy law, and she met many middle-class families struggling to make ends meet. These interactions inspired her to switch from being a Republican to a Democrat in 1996.
In 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed Warren to chair the congressional oversight panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), working for both the Bush and Obama administrations. She is also credited with the development of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency set up to educate consumers on the potential pitfalls of certain financial agreements including mortgages, credit cards, and other loans. She also taught at Harvard Law School for 20 years.
Warren will bring her policy and financial expertise to the Senate Banking Committee. She was also assigned to the Aging and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committees.
?Working families have been getting slammed,? Warren told the National Journal in an interview. ?Washington has been rigged to work for those who can hire an army of lawyers and an army of lobbyists.?
Yet to be determined is whether Warren will be able to work across the political aisle as Kennedy was able to do.
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