Debbie Stabenow

Deborah Ann Stabenow (born April 29, 1950), known as Debbie Stabenow, is a Democratic United States Senator from Michigan. She defeated the conservative Republican incumbent, Senator Spencer Abraham (whom George W. Bush later named Secretary of Energy) in 2000. She was the first woman from Michigan elected to the U.S. Senate.

Stabenow was born in Gladwin, Michigan and grew up in Clare, Michigan. She graduated from Clare High School. She received a B.A. from Michigan State University in 1972 and an M.S.W. magna cum laude from Michigan State University in 1975. While in graduate school, Stabenow won her first election, to the Ingham County Board of Commissioners, a position in which she served from 1975-1978. She has also worked as a social worker, and a leadership training consultant. She served in the Michigan State House of Representatives from 1979-1990, where she became the first woman to preside over the house. She also served in the State Senate from 1991-1994. She was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 from Michigan's Eighth District and served two terms. She did not seek reelection to the House of Representatives in 2000, but was elected to the U.S. Senate.

She is a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Budget, the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, and the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. She introduced the Medical Equity and Drug Savings Act in the Senate.

Stabenow is only the second person from Michigan to have served in both houses of the Michigan State Legislature and in both houses of the United States Congress. The first was Thomas W. Ferry. Stabenow is also the first person to have served as state legislator to be popularly elected to the U.S. Senate (until enactment of the Seventeenth amendment to the United States Constitution in 1913, U.S. Senators were selected by the state legislature). No former state legislator has served in the U.S. Senate since 1894, when Francis B. Stockbridge died.