Maria Cantwell

Maria Ellen Cantwell (; born October 13, 1958) is an American politician and former businesswoman serving as the junior United States senator from Washington since 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served in the Washington House of Representatives from 1987 to 1993, and the United States House of Representatives from from 1993 to 1995.

Born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, Cantwell graduated from Miami University before moving to Seattle to work on Alan Cranston's 1984 presidential campaign. In 1986, she was elected to the state House of Representatives, where she served until her election to Congress in 1992. Cantwell served one term in Congress before losing her seat to Republican Rick White in the 1994 election. She then briefly worked in the private sector as vice president of marketing for RealNetworks.

Despite having vowed to remain out of politics, Cantwell ran for the United States Senate in 2000. She defeated Republican incumbent Slade Gorton in one of the closest elections in the state's history. Cantwell was reelected in 2006, 2012, and 2018. Upon the February 2017 resignation of Jeff Sessions to become United States Attorney General, she became the most senior junior senator. She is the second female senator from Washington, after Patty Murray.

Early life, education, and early political career

Cantwell was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was raised in a predominantly Irish American neighborhood on the south side of Indianapolis. Her father, Paul Cantwell, served as county commissioner, city councilor, state legislator, and chief of staff for U.S. Representative Andrew Jacobs Jr.; he was the Democratic nominee for Mayor of Indianapolis in 1979. Her mother, Rose, was an administrative assistant. Her ancestry includes Irish and German.

Cantwell attended Emmerich Manual High School, and was inducted into the Indianapolis Public Schools Hall of Fame in 2006. After high school, Cantwell attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in public administration.

Cantwell moved to Seattle, Washington, in 1983, to campaign for U.S. Senator Alan Cranston (D-CA) 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 in 1986 to build a new library there. As of 2000, Cantwell lived in Edmonds, Washington with her mother.

Washington House of Representatives (1987–1993)

Elections

In 1986, Cantwell was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives at the age of 28. She defeated George Dahlquist 54%–46%. In 1988, she was reelected with 66% of the vote. In 1990, she was reelected to a third term with 61% of the vote.

Tenure

As a state representative, Cantwell helped write Washington's Growth Management Act of 1990, which required cities to develop comprehensive growth plans, and she negotiated its passage. She also worked on legislation regulating nursing homes. Cantwell resigned on January 3, 1993, in preparation to be sworn in as a member of the United States House of Representatives.

Committee assignments

*Growth Strategies Commission

U.S. House of Representatives (1993–1995)

Elections

;1992
In the November election, Cantwell defeated Republican State Senator Gary A. Nelson 55%–42%. She became the first Democrat elected to the United States House of Representatives from Washington's first congressional district in 40 years.

;1994
Republican Rick White defeated Cantwell 52%–48% in the 1994 United States House of Representatives elections. Before that year's "Republican Revolution", eight of the nine representatives from the Washington state delegation were from the Democratic Party. After the election, five Democratic representatives from Washington state lost their positions, despite running for re-election, including Cantwell, future governor Jay Inslee, and Speaker of the House Tom Foley.

Tenure

Cantwell was called a "savvy, pro-business Democrat". She supported President Clinton's 1993 budget, which raised taxes and passed without the votes of many Democrats. During her only term, she helped persuade the Clinton administration to terminate its support of the Clipper chip. She wrote a letter to Vice President Al Gore and staunchly opposed it because Microsoft Inc. was in her district. She voted for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Committee assignments

*Public Works
*Foreign Affairs
* Merchant Marine and Fisheries

Private sector employment (1995–1999)

After her defeat, Cantwell vowed to leave politics. Political ally Rob Glaser offered her a job as vice president of marketing for RealNetworks. Among her accomplishments was the live Internet streaming broadcast of a Mariners-Yankees baseball game in 1995, which marked the start of Internet broadcasts of Major League Baseball games.

In 1998, the company was criticized by privacy groups, which alleged that the RealJukebox software program incorporated spyware to track unsuspecting users' listening patterns and download history. In response, RealNetworks amended its privacy policy to fully disclose its privacy practices regarding user listening patterns. Subsequently, RealNetworks submitted to independent outside audits of its privacy practices. Several lawsuits regarding alleged privacy violations were settled out of court. This incident has shaped her views on privacy and her opposition to the Bush administration's post-9/11 policies.

U.S. Senate (2001–present)

Elections

2000

At the urging of party activists and officials, Cantwell formed an exploratory committee in October 1999 to consider a run for U.S. Senate against Democrat Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn and incumbent Republican Senator Slade Gorton. She committed to the race on January 19, 2000. Cantwell entered the campaign a year after Senn, who was endorsed by the Washington State Labor Council and NARAL, and used her personal wealth to fund television advertisements. Early on, privacy became an issue; Senn cited her record protecting medical privacy as insurance commissioner, while Cantwell promoted internet privacy and cited her opposition to the Clipper chip. Senn later used television advertisements to accuse Cantwell of avoiding debates, as she had agreed to two debates while Senn preferred more. They participated in three debates, during which they attacked each other. Senn attacked RealNetworks and Cantwell's role in the company; Cantwell accused Senn of wanting to run against RealNetworks, and said that Senn was uninformed on internet issues. Cantwell was endorsed by ''The Seattle Times'', the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', ''The Spokesman-Review'', and ''The News Tribune''. She easily won her party's nomination, defeating Senn by a 3–1 margin in the primary. Although he won re-nomination, Gorton got fewer votes than Cantwell and Senn's combined total.

Social security, prescription drugs, dams, gun control, and campaign finance reform were among the most important issues in Cantwell's race against Gorton, which drew national attention. Cantwell also adopted the slogan "Your voice for a change", a veiled reference to Gorton's campaign theme in 1980, challenging incumbent Warren Magnuson's age. She said Gorton supported "19th-century solutions to 21st-century problems". Cantwell was endorsed by ''The Seattle Times'' and the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', the state's two biggest newspapers. Gorton was endorsed by the smaller '' News Tribune'' and two of the largest Eastern Washington newspapers, ''The Spokesman-Review'' and ''Tri-City Herald''. At times, the campaign was accused of pettiness as national PACs and groups funded television attack advertisements. After a Cantwell campaign worker deep-linked to a humorous photo on Gorton's website, he accused Cantwell's campaign of hacking, and Senn accused Cantwell of hypocrisy. "Fiddling with people's websites and calling it good fun ... adds a very childish and unworthy character to the race", Senn's campaign spokeswoman Barbara Stenson said. Cantwell spent over $10 million of her own money on her campaign, pledging not to accept money from PACs. When RealNetworks stock declined at the end of 2000, she spent time raising funds for debt retirement, but kept her pledge not to accept PAC money. In the waning weeks of the campaign, the Federal Election Commission ruled that Cantwell violated federal campaign finance law by securing $3.8 million in bank loans for her campaign and failing to properly disclose the loans until January 30, 2001. The complaint alleged that she had received a $600,000 line of credit without sufficient collateral, and another $1,000,000, all at a preferential interest rate. After review, the Federal Election Commission sent a letter of admonishment, saying that the loans were "made on a basis that assures repayment, and that each loan bore the usual and customary interest rate".

The election was among the closest in Washington history. Cantwell held a small lead in the initial returns on election night, but the race remained too close to call. Gorton overtook her the next day, amassing a lead of 12,500 votes by the second week of absentee ballot counting. The election result was certified on November 22 with a lead of 1,953 votes for Cantwell out of 2.5 million cast, credited to support from the Puget Sound region. The 0.08% margin triggered an automatic recount, which increased her lead to 2,229 votes, or 0.09%. It was the last Senate race to be called in the 2000 election, which resulted in a 50–50 tie ahead of a contentious presidential election recount. Cantwell and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan became the third and fourth women to defeat incumbent senators, following Kay Bailey Hutchison's 1993 and Dianne Feinstein's 1992 special-election victories.

2006

The close 2004 gubernatorial race between Democrat Christine Gregoire and Republican Dino Rossi suggested to many that the 2006 contest might go either way. Both Cantwell and her opponent Republican Mike McGavick dominated their primaries; initial speculation favored a Republican victory. "At one point", wrote analyst Larry Sabato, "all the talk in this race concerned Cantwell's cool relations with anti-war Democratic elements and McGavick's relatively united base. But Democrats appear to have closed ranks behind their junior senator." Cantwell was reelected by a 17-point margin, even winning several traditionally Republican counties in Eastern Washington, including Spokane County.

During the 2006 campaign, Cantwell received heavy criticism for declining most of the invitations she received to debate McGavick in public fora. Media outlets across the state, including ''The Olympian'' and the ''Yakima Herald-Republic'', rebuked her, claiming she was afraid to confront McGavick, calling it "unacceptable" and "simply not fair". Cantwell agreed to two debates with McGavick in Seattle and Spokane, lasting 60 and 30 minutes, respectively. When she ran for Senate in 2000 against Gorton, Gorton also agreed to only two debates of a similar format. Similarly, when Washington's senior senator, Patty Murray, ran for reelection in 2004, she agreed to only two debates with George Nethercutt, although each debate lasted an hour.

2012

Cantwell was reelected to a third term, defeating Republican State Senator Michael Baumgartner.

2018

Cantwell was reelected to a fourth term, defeating Republican Susan Hutchison.

Tenure

Cantwell was a proponent of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill of 2002, and co-sponsored the Clean Money, Clean Elections Act of 2001. In 2005, she wrote a letter in support of the Perkins Loan program, and told the ''Seattle Times'' in July 2006 that she opposed Social Security privatization. Cantwell co-sponsored the "Pension Fairness and Full Disclosure Act of 2005".

Also in 2005, Cantwell voted for the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which angered many who opposed free trade agreements. Others argued that due to the state's unique economy, any senator from Washington almost had to vote for free trade pacts.

Citing his potential views on abortion and the environment, Cantwell was one of 22 senators to vote not to confirm United States Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. In January 2006, after publicly announcing her opposition to Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, Cantwell, 18 other Democrats and all 53 present Republicans, voted for the cloture motion. The success of this motion ended an unlikely attempt to filibuster Alito's confirmation led by Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. Alito was confirmed the next day by a vote of 58–42, with most Democrats, including Cantwell, voting against confirmation.

In 2010, Cantwell voted to invoke cloture to begin debate on the Don't ask, don't tell policy in the military.

In the 2016 United States presidential election, Cantwell received one electoral vote for vice president from a faithless elector in Washington.

Iraq War

On October 11, 2002, Cantwell voted in favor of the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq

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