- published: 02 Oct 2008
- views: 5073
Maria E. Cantwell (born October 13, 1958) is the junior United States Senator from the state of Washington and a member of the Democratic Party.
She previously served in the Washington House of Representatives, and then in the United States House of Representatives from Washington's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1995, after which she worked as an executive for RealNetworks. She is Washington's second female senator, after Patty Murray.
Cantwell was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was raised in a predominantly Irish-American neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis. Her father, Paul F. Cantwell, served as county commissioner, city councilman, state legislator, and Chief of Staff for U.S. Representative Andrew Jacobs, Jr. Her mother, Rose M., was an administrative assistant. Her ancestry includes Irish and German.
She attended Emmerich Manual High School and was inducted into the Indianapolis Public School Hall of Fame in 2006. After high school, Cantwell went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Administration. She moved to Seattle, Washington in 1983 to campaign for Alan Cranston in his unsuccessful bid for the 1984 Democratic Presidential nomination. She then moved to the Seattle suburb of Mountlake Terrace because it reminded her of Indianapolis, and led a successful campaign to build a new library there.
Patricia Lynn "Patty" Murray (née Johns; born October 11, 1950) is the senior United States Senator from Washington and a member of the Democratic Party. Murray was first elected to the Senate in 1992, becoming Washington's first female senator. She was re-elected in 1998, 2004 and 2010.
Murray has served as the Senate Majority Conference Secretary since 2007, making her the fourth-highest-ranking Democrat and the highest-ranking woman in the Senate.
Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 2001 to 2003, Murray assumed the role again in early 2011, for a term ending in 2013. She is also the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
On August 9, 2011, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed Murray to co-chair the United States Congress Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction.
One of seven children, Murray was born in Bothell, Washington, to Beverly A. (née McLaughlin) and David L. Johns. Her mother was an accountant. Her father fought in World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart.[citation needed] She attended Saint Brendan Catholic School as a young child.
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