USDA
Senator Baldwin asking U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue to comment on his efforts and plans to help the dairy community, June, 2017.
I’ve known Tammy Baldwin for more than thirty years, since I was a reporter at a local weekly newspaper and she was a member of the Dane County Board, representing a district in Madison, Wisconsin. I covered her races for state assembly beginning in 1992, and her election in 1998 as the first woman from Wisconsin and the first openly gay person from anywhere elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served six terms. In 2012, she became the first out lesbian to be elected to the U.S. Senate, and was handily reelected last fall.
Throughout her career, Democrat Baldwin has worked to improve the lives of her constituents, at times by making common cause with Republicans. She has fought for better health care and employment opportunities for veterans, sought increased federal funding to fight the opioid crisis, championed affordable health care, and worked to save federal Forest Service jobs in Wisconsin. She has a rating of 100 percent from Planned Parenthood and a score of “F” from the National Rifle Association.
Baldwin’s Madison office is by chance located on the same floor of the same building as The Progressive, but our recent conversation took place by phone, with Baldwin in Washington, D.C.
Q: I know you hear often from constituents who are appalled by Donald Trump and what he is doing to our courts, our environment, and our democratic norms. What do you say to them?
Tammy Baldwin: First of all, I always ask people to engage, to stay active, to be advocates, to speak out, to be visible on issues, and to not give up on our democracy. We’ve seen this President take so many steps backward on LGBTQ civil rights, but I often remind people how long that arc is, that it’s been fifty years since the beginning of the modern day LGBTQ civil rights movement, and it was really only [in recent years] that we made such incredible progress. This is a long game, not a short game.
Q: Is Donald Trump, in your opinion, a racist?
Baldwin: He has said such harmful words that have deepened divisions based on race, divisions based on religion, divisions based on sexual orientation and gender identity. He’s not somebody who is a leader in unifying in any way, and so it’s been horrendous.
Q: Do you support his impeachment?
Baldwin: I certainly read the Mueller Report as having very serious information [on] ten instances in which he lied, told somebody to lie, told somebody else to fabricate a document, and interfered with the Mueller investigation. If the House is able to get some witnesses on the record and put together the case, I would hear it fairly, but I certainly think a lot of what the Mueller Report suggests are exceptionally serious actions on his part.
Q: Obviously, Wisconsin was picked to host the Democratic National Convention next July because it is a swing state that voted for Trump in 2016, but also because of its long legacy of progressivism. Why does it matter that the next Democratic contender for President will be nominated in Wisconsin?
Baldwin: I think it was really important because it’s been a long time since the convention has been truly in the heartland. Our progressive tradition and the opportunity to herald that during the 2020 convention involves things that were really powerful in my campaign last year. I don’t want to be not humble, but I won with nearly an eleven-point margin. And I think it was because I made it clear during my campaign, no matter what issue I was working on or talking about, that I’m not afraid to stand up to the big powerful interests, channeling “Fighting Bob” La Follette [founder of The Progressive and former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin]. Just as he did with the freight rail companies and monopolies of his time, we have to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies and the multinational corporations engaging in stock buybacks with their handsome tax benefits instead of investing in their workers and looking toward the future. I think that that wins elections, and it’s also what’s needed to solve problems.
Q: Your name has come up as a potential candidate for Vice President. I know this is not something you are actively inviting but if you were to be asked by a candidate you admire and respect, might you say yes?
Baldwin: Nobody sets out to run for number two, but I think the evaluation for me would be: Where should I be to do more to help the people of Wisconsin or the people of this country who are at a disadvantage to these powerful interests who seem to write their own legislation and get their way? I look at that in the health care arena, helping working people get ahead, protecting our resources, and fighting the powers that would prevent us from reducing our carbon output until we can save the planet.
Q: You have worked with people on the opposite side of the political aisle, including your sponsorship of bills with Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst to increase access to rural broadband and assist family caregivers. Do you think there are more opportunities for bipartisanship than are being realized?
Baldwin: I would put it a different way. I think there’s more bipartisanship than is being reported right now, if that makes sense.
Q: Please don’t say “fake news.”
Baldwin: No, I’m not going to. Instances of bipartisan work and bipartisan friendship and bipartisan whatever don’t usually make headlines, but there’s a lot more going on. So most of my bills are bipartisan. We know that to the degree that the filibuster remains in any form in the Senate, you need Republican votes to pass legislation.
Q: Is there a lesson here for ordinary citizens? Should progressives be trying to reach out and connect with Republicans, conservatives, and Trump supporters?
Baldwin: I think there’s good things that come out of that, but I don’t think most people live their lives in a partisan way. So I think there’s much more room for people to do basic problem solving. There’s fewer people who strongly carry a partisan label than there are people who are just trying to make things better.
Q: You have supported the Pentagon’s plans to house F-35 fighter jets in Madison, which has drawn protesters to your office. Labeled “the most expensive weapons program in human history,” these jets have the ability to carry nuclear weapons and are projected to have a significantly higher crash rate than the F-16 bombers they will replace. Why not just tell the Pentagon we don’t want these weapons here?
Baldwin: The 115th Fighter Wing, a unit of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, has been located at Truax Field [in Madison] for many years. The current airplane is the F-16, which is beginning to reach the end of its time. I support having the successor aircraft come here and keep a fighter wing in Wisconsin. There’s a lot of economic impact, job impacts, and I have a slight preference for making sure that these aircraft are not just housed in bases for the Air Force, but Air Guard, because there’s a difference there. These people are citizens in our community; they have jobs that they hold down outside of their Guard duty, and I think it’s important to have fighter wings that aren’t just the active Air Force, but also folks that have a much greater community tie.
Q: It’s clear that the threat to reproductive rights has never been greater. If the U.S. Supreme Court does overturn Roe v. Wade, what do you see happening?
Baldwin: Women’s reproductive freedom and rights and access to abortion services have been being rolled back for a long time. I am co-author of the Women’s Health Protection Act, along with my colleague Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. What it does is kind of follow the model of the Voting Rights Act, which basically says if the states are passing laws meant to burden the Constitutional right, that the Court should strike those laws down. We want to go on the offensive and not just be playing defense.
Q: Are you optimistic about the future?
Baldwin: I have to be, because you can’t do this job and fight hard every day if you don’t believe that our democracy provides us with the tools to have it make a difference. Sometimes it’s tougher than other days. These have been some pretty tough days.