U.S. Senate

Raised in rural Missouri, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley previously served as Missouri’s Attorney General. There he earned a reputation for taking on the big and the powerful to protect Missouri workers and families. He has battled big government and big business, special interests, organized crime, and anyone who would threaten the well-being of Missourians.

A native of small town Lexington, Missouri in rural Lafayette County, Senator Hawley graduated from Rockhurst High School in Kansas City. After graduating from Stanford University in 2002 and Yale Law School in 2006, he moved back home to mid-Missouri with his wife, Erin, where they started a family. They are the proud parents of three young children: Elijah, Blaise, and Abigail.

Senator Hawley is recognized as one of the nation’s leading constitutional lawyers. He has litigated at the Supreme Court of the United States, the federal courts of appeals, and in state court, fighting for the people’s liberties. He previously fought Obamacare at the Supreme Court — and won — as one of the lead attorneys in the landmark Hobby Lobby case. He was also a lead attorney in the Hosanna-Tabor case at the Supreme Court, protecting the rights of churches.

Since taking office, Senator Hawley has been a leading champion in Congress for working families. He’s worked across the aisle to deliver protections for kids online, led the fight for direct payments to working people during the COVID-19 pandemic, and taken steps to crack down on predatory landlords. Senator Hawley has also rolled out proposals to protect American workers from foreign trade cheating, especially from China, and has been an advocate for ending the offshoring of jobs and boosting manufacturing the United States.

Senator Hawley has taken on corporate special interests to level the playing field for the American worker as well. He boldly stood up to the abuses of Big Tech and Wall Street and has worked to reign in the power of these mega companies while championing innovation, entrepreneurship, and small businesses. Senator Hawley has also worked to keep our communities safe by confronting illegal immigration, and challenging big opioid manufacturers and human traffickers – during his time as the former Attorney General of Missouri and in the U.S. Senate. As a fierce defender of the Constitution, Senator Hawley is committed to protecting Missourians’ First and Second Amendment rights.

Senator Hawley serves on the Senate Committees on the Judiciary, Armed Services, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Ted grew up in Texas. His father, Rafael, fled Cuba after being tortured and imprisoned and came to Texas with just $100 sewn into his underwear. Rafael got a job washing dishes making 50 cents an hour and learned English. He worked hard and attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a degree in mathematics. He later started a small business in the oil and gas industry. Today, Rafael is a pastor in Dallas.

Ted’s mother, Eleanor, was born in Delaware to an Irish and Italian working-class family. She became the first in her family to go to college, graduating from Rice University with a degree in mathematics. She broke boundaries at Shell as one of the few women working as a computer programmer at the dawn of the computer age.

Ted earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton and his law degree from Harvard Law School. After law school, Ted clerked for Chief Justice Rehnquist and then worked in private practice. In 1999, Ted joined George W. Bush’s campaign for president as a domestic policy advisor. The best thing about Ted’s experience on the Bush-Cheney campaign, by far, was meeting Heidi Nelson, who also worked on the policy team. Heidi and Ted married after the campaign.

After working at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission during the Bush administration, Ted moved back home to be the Solicitor General of Texas. As Solicitor General, Ted argued eight cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and defended our freedom of speech, our right to keep and bear arms, and our religious liberty in courts across the nation. Following his service as Solicitor General, Ted returned to private practice, where he continued to litigate high stakes cases and argued his ninth case before the Supreme Court.

Ted and Heidi also started their family, welcoming Caroline and Catherine.

In 2013, Ted was sworn into the United States Senate, where he has been a passionate fighter for limited government, economic growth, and national security. He has authored dozens of legislative measures that have been signed into law, including expanding 529 college savings accounts to allow parents to save for K-12 public, private, and religious education, repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate, imposing sanctions on terrorists who use civilians as human shields, designating North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, targeting Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline through multiple bills that halted construction and kept it stalled, reauthorizing and reforming NASA, holding dictatorships in South America accountable, and ensuring the availability of additional records to help solve civil rights cold cases.

Ted is honored to serve as the top Republican on the Commerce Committee, a position that gives him the chance to have a far-reaching impact on innovation and growth across the landscape of daily life. As Ranking Member, he is focused on furthering innovation in the telecommunications space, protecting Americans’ privacy and security, helping Americans travel safely and more efficiently, and ensuring that the U.S. continues to lead the world in space exploration.

He is also leading the fight in the Senate to support Texas jobs, rein in Big Tech, secure the border, and fundamentally reassess the U.S.-China relationship and hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for covering up the coronavirus pandemic, committing human rights atrocities, and engaging in censorship, propaganda, and espionage in the United States.

Chuck Grassley was born September 17, 1933, on a farm in Butler County, Iowa, where he continues to farm today. Coming of age on the heels of the Great Depression instilled principles of conservationism and fiscal conservatism. He was also brought up in a household that valued hard work and civic engagement. His mother, Ruth, was one of the first four women in Iowa to cast a vote following the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.

Grassley studied political science at the University of Northern Iowa, and frequently returns to his alma mater to root for the Panthers at athletic events.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is the first woman elected to represent the State of Minnesota in the United States Senate. Throughout her public service, Senator Klobuchar has always embraced the values she learned growing up in Minnesota. Her grandfather worked 1500 feet underground in the iron ore mines of Northern Minnesota. Her father, Jim, was a newspaperman, and her mother, Rose, was an elementary school teacher who continued teaching until she was 70. Senator Klobuchar has built a reputation of putting partisanship aside to help strengthen the economy and support families, workers, and businesses. In 2019, an analysis by Vanderbilt University ranked her as the “most effective” Democratic senator in the 115th Congress.

Senator Klobuchar is guided by the belief that her first duty is to represent the people of Minnesota. She acted quickly to obtain full funding to rebuild the I-35W bridge just thirteen months after it tragically collapsed into the Mississippi River. She worked across party lines to expand education and job opportunities for returning service members, fought to ensure that Minnesota National Guard members received the full benefits they earned, and helped turn Minnesota’s ground-breaking “Beyond the Yellow Ribbon” program into a national model. As a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Klobuchar worked to pass several bipartisan Farm Bills to strengthen Minnesota’s rural economy and give farmers the certainty and support they need.

Working with both Democrats and Republicans, Senator Klobuchar has made key progress on legislation to keep people safe. She led the effort to pass landmark pieces of legislation to end human trafficking and combat the opioid and fentanyl epidemic. She fought to pass the most significant consumer product safety legislation in a generation, keeping foreign toxic products off our shores and out of our stores. She also pushed the cell phone companies to enact more consumer-friendly policies. Additionally, her efforts to protect consumers have resulted in the largest furniture and airbag recalls in American history.

Since arriving in the Senate, Senator Klobuchar has worked with Democrats and Republicans to get things done. She led the effort to pass landmark pieces of legislation to end human trafficking and combat the opioid epidemic. She fought to pass the most significant consumer product safety legislation in a generation, keeping foreign toxic products off our shores and out of our stores, and pushed the cell phone companies to enact more consumer-friendly policies. Additionally, her efforts to protect consumers have resulted in the largest furniture and airbag recalls in American history.

As a member of the Joint Economic Committee and the Senate Commerce Committee, Senator Klobuchar has been a leader in working to implement a competitive agenda to ensure businesses have the tools they need to grow and create good jobs in their communities. She has established herself as a leader on addressing supply chain issues, successfully leading the bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act to address sky-high shipping prices, which was ultimately signed into law. She has also authored legislation to lift the trade embargo with Cuba as well as legislation to help small businesses tap into new markets abroad and foster the creation and growth of new businesses across the country. She has successfully advocated to take action to combat illegal steel dumping. As co-chair of the Senate Broadband Caucus, Senator Klobuchar has been a leading advocate working to connect every American to high speed internet once and for all. Her provisions to expand high-speed broadband across the country were included in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in 2021. She has also passed significant legislation aimed at increasing funds for STEM education and led national initiatives to boost American tourism, including a long-term reauthorization of Brand USA, which helps attract international travelers to destinations throughout the United States. Finally, she has established herself as a key voice on workforce training and leads bills to boost apprenticeships, skills training, and community and technical college so that America can continue to compete on the world stage.

Senator Klobuchar also serves as the Chairwoman on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights, where she has worked to reinvigorate America’s antitrust laws and restore competition to American markets. In this capacity, she introduced legislation to give federal enforcers the resources they need to do their jobs, strengthen prohibitions on anticompetitive conduct and mergers, and make additional reforms to improve enforcement. In 2022, her bipartisan bill to create rules of the roads for digital markets became the first piece of antitrust tech legislation to pass the Senate Judiciary Committee since the advent of the Internet. The Washington Post credited her approach, noting, “The moderate but meaningful proposals provide a launchpad for cross-aisle cooperation, a goal of much of the senator’s legislative handiwork.” She has also introduced bipartisan legislation to lower prescription drug prices by cracking down on “pay-for-delay” agreements, the practice of brand-name drug manufacturers using pay-off agreements to keep more affordable generic equivalents off the market. Long focused on bringing down costs for families, provisions from Senator Klobuchar’s legislation to finally unleash Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices with the big pharmaceutical companies were signed into law in 2022.

Senator Klobuchar is also the Chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee, where she has worked to ensure fairness, transparency, and efficiency in government. During a Joint Session of Congress to receive each state’s electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, she led the defense of challenges to Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes, working with a bipartisan group of her colleagues to stand up for our democracy. In response to the January 6th insurrection, she led a bipartisan investigation into the security, planning, and response failures related to the violent and unprecedented attack. The report made recommendations, including passing a law to change Capitol Police Board procedures and improving intelligence sharing. Senator Klobuchar has worked across the aisle to implement these recommendations.

Senator Klobuchar spearheaded the Freedom to Vote Act in the U.S. Senate and continues to lead on multiple voting issues, including spearheading the work to pass the bipartisan Electoral Count Reform Act. Additionally, she helped pass the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate and has authored legislation to automatically register eligible voters when they turn 18. She has also led efforts to improve election security and prevent foreign interference in our democracy and successfully secured $1.2 billion to strengthen states’ election infrastructure and help protect them from future attacks by foreign adversaries. In addition, in her role on the Judiciary Committee she has been active in advocating for legislation focused on increased funding for police, civil rights, drug courts, criminal justice, and immigration reform.

As a member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, Senator Klobuchar has worked on behalf of Minnesota’s farmers, agriculture workers, and rural communities by fighting to expand access to broadband, support food assistance programs, and provide stability to livestock producers. She has also passed legislation to encourage the use of renewable fuels and invest in data related to farming and agriculture to inform best practices. Additionally, Senator Klobuchar is devoted to passing on Minnesota’s tradition of outdoor recreation, fishing, and hunting to the next generation and has secured significant funding for research, restoration, and conservation activities, including the 2022 Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Reauthorization Act. Senator Klobuchar is also strongly supportive of efforts to combat climate change.

Before serving in the Senate, Senator Klobuchar headed the largest prosecutor’s office in Minnesota for eight years, making the prosecution of violent criminals her top priority while increasing the office’s focus on white collar crime. In the Senate, she has championed reauthorizations of the local COPS Hiring Program and has prioritized both the funding of local police officers across the country as well as federal law enforcement such as the U.S. Capitol Police, U.S. Attorneys Offices, the FBI, and the U.S. Marshals Service. She led the effort for successful passage of Minnesota’s first felony DWI law and received the leadership award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Her safe schools initiative, community prosecution efforts, and criminal justice reforms earned national awards from both the Bush and Clinton Justice Departments. She worked with the Innocence Project to advocate for videotaped interrogations across the country as well as innovative eyewitness processes to protect against false identifications. As a private citizen and before being elected to public office, Senator Klobuchar was the leading advocate for successful passage of one of the first laws in the country guaranteeing 48-hour hospital stays for new moms and their babies.

Senator Klobuchar’s work has gained national recognition. Vogue magazine described her as “personable, popular, and pragmatic,” The New York Times described her as a “former prosecutor with made-for-state-fair charms,” and Working Mother named her as “Best in Congress” for her efforts on behalf of working families. “Want to reform antitrust? Amy Klobuchar knows where to start,” The Washington Post headlined its opinion piece on her sweeping antitrust legislation, the Competition and Antitrust Law Enforcement Reform Act. She has received numerous awards from the National Farm Bureau and National Farmers Union for championing farmers and rural communities. She has been recognized for her work on behalf of children and consumers, and Refugee International gave her the Congressional Leadership Award for her work to support refugee communities. She received an award from the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) for her work to fight sexual assault in the military, and the Disabled American Veterans honored her work to improve the lives of America’s veterans. She also received the “Outstanding Member of the Senate Award” from the National Narcotic Officers’ Associations’ Coalition and the “Above and Beyond Award” from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for her commitment to developing a supportive work environment for employees serving in the Guard and Reserves. In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented her with the Order of Merit, First Class.

Senator Klobuchar was the valedictorian of her Wayzata High School class. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and the University of Chicago Law School. Her senior essay in college, published as the book “Uncovering the Dome,” chronicles the 10-year-history behind the building of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and is still used at colleges and universities across the country. Her book, “Antitrust,” was on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

Senator Klobuchar is married to John Bessler, a native of Mankato, who attended Loyola High School and the University of Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar and John have a daughter, Abigail, who they are very proud of!