First is Tom Udall, a progressive who was elected to the seat vacated by that old right wing fossil Domenici, who pled senility to avoid prosecution and was forced to step down. He's currently the 14th most progressive senator over at Progressive Punch.

Second is the new guy, Martin Heinrich, who toke over Bingaman's seat when he retired. He's not a progressive, but he is a solid Democrat. He's also a young guy in his 40s, so he bears watching as he grows into the job.

I don't see either of them being voted out in the near future.

Voted to confirm Gorsuch for SC and most of Trump's cabinet nominees (notable exceptions: Sessions, DeVos, Mnuchin, Tillerson). Didn't vote on the Pruitt confirmation for EPA.

Frankly, in office mainly because his Tea Party opponent in 2012 couldn't keep his mouth shut about his personal belief (one literally nobody asked him about) that children conceived because of rape are "gifts from God." I'm glad we got the seat, but I'll be surprised if we held one in red Indiana won largely through an unforced error.

I don't think he's a terrible Senator given the alternatives we had. But if he thinks voting as a centrist will win him re-election, he's more optimistic than I am. I'd rather see him make the most of the 6 years he likely will have.

Centrist but that works for Florida.

She's the first Latina to serve in the Senate. And hopefully in two years I can happily report two senators, after we run Dean Heller outta town.

unfortunately he serves with Marco Rubio. I admire him very much. Rick Scott, probably 5th worst governor may run against him. He was the 2nd sitting member of congress to go into space 1986.
In favor of common sense gun control, against drilling in the gulf . Good guy, occasionally we elect one.

Murphy and Blumenthal. So glad Lieberman retired. He often acted like he was in bed with the insurance industry.

Yay!

Senator Durbin (an Illinois native, graduate of Georgetown School of Foreign Service and Georgetown Law) served as a Representative in Congress from 1983-1997, and as Senator from 1998 to the present. He's been second in command of the Senate Democrats as Whip since 2005. He's a truly good person.

We all know Tammy Duckworth's story, and she is our newly elected Senator, after serving in the House. We hope she does well.

Don't feel obligated to answer, if you'd rather not.

I love in the far northwest suburbs of the greater Chicago area. They are not kidding about the far part. We are closer to the Wosconsin border than we are to the city. My village of Alonquin was recently featured on NPR as "a Republican stronghold" in the state.

Danny Davis is our Representative in Congress.

A true progressive.

Ron Johnson, aka Rojo, on the other hand, a week or so ago had difficulty answering intelligent questions posed by High School students. Derp! So guess which party he represents, lol!

and ratcliffe in the House.

It is discouraging...yet I vote in every election.

screwn

He is the son of a former PA Democratic governor. He frustrates me on economics issues sometimes and is pro-life (though I doubt he would vote against choice), but he is not one of the MOST conservative Democrats.

He is a thoughtful man and is well regarded in this increasingly conservative state.

Senators Warren and Markey.

Warren's election was closer than I'd prefer.

King is a popular former Governor of our state who served as an Independent from 1995-2003. During his time as Governor, he launched the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) to provide laptops for every public middle-school student and teacher in the state, the first initiative of its kind in the nation. He stated: "I think we're going to demonstrate the power of one-to-one computer access that's going to transform education. The economic future will belong to the technologically adept."

After his tenure as Governor, he was involved in a wind power utility company, Independence Wind. In August 2009, Independence Wind along with joint venture partner Wagner Forest Management won Maine DEP approval for construction of a proposed $120-million, 22-turbine, utility-scale wind power project along a prominent mountain ridge in the state.

He won his Senate race in 2012, winning 53% of the vote in a 3-way race. He votes with Democrats around 90% of the time. He's up for reelection in 2018 but I don't see anyone beating him.

In 2010, we had a weak Democratic candidate (Libby Mitchell) and a strong independent candidate (Eliot Cutler). Ahead of the election, polling had Mitchell dropping fast and Cutler gaining (and he had all the energy behind him). Mitchell didn't drop out or throw support behind Cutler and took enough votes away from him so Lepage got in with less than 38% of the vote.

In 2014, we had what should have been a great candidate in Mike Michaud but he ran a pretty crappy campaign. We also had a bear hunting initiative on the ballot that year so Republicans were out in force.

Maine politics is pretty weird. We love our independents but we have many different "factions" of voters which makes for pretty interesting "alliances" which very easily change. Centrist Dems have been the nominee the past two times so I'd like to see a progressive as our nominee this time. After all, our state did vote for Bernie pretty decisively in the primary. Troy Jackson is ideal. He's a logger from more conservative northern Maine and he was a Bernie superdelegate.

What can I say about her? It could be worse?? ND went from being represented by Sens. Dorgan and Conrad and Rep. Pomeroy (all centrist democrats) in the 90s to 2000s, to nutjobs like Rep. Cramer and Sen. Hoeven. And the state Senate and house are controlled by worse.

as you say, "Both are outstanding Democrats, who support progressive legislation and work hard for both the people in their own states and for the country as a whole"

Wyden is generally seen as being friendlier to corporate interests, especially insurance companies, but does solid work for us on the intelligence committee and is generally responsive to constituent concerns. Merkley is a strong proponent of labor unions, and is gaining some notoriety for his strident opposition to Trumpco's agenda.

https://www.wyden.senate.gov/
https://www.merkley.senate.gov/

i consider myself fortunate to be represented by both of them.

he seemed to be more moderate and he was good at working with others but since he became our Senator he has been a proud progressive. Wyden is moderate but has always been a very reliable Dem. I am proud of our Senators.

Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow

Peters is a junior senator. He was elected in 2014, replacing Carl Levin. He tends to vote center-left.
Stabenow was elected to the Senate in 2000. She is a solid Dem.

I am happy with both of my Senators.

Michael Bennet-D is the 40th most progressive US Senator according to Progressive Punch.
Cory Gardner-R is the 60th most progressive US Senator according to Progressive Punch.
Bennett won re-election in 2016 by a 50-44 percent margin two years after Gardner got elected in 2014 by a 48-46 percent margin against Mark Udall. We need to make sure that in 2018 a Democrat succeeds Governor Hickenlooper, defeats Secretary of State Williams-R,Treasurer Stapleton, Attorney General Coffman, CO-6 CD US Representative Mike Coffman, and regains control of the CO State Senate. We then in 2020 need to unseat Gardner who only is serving in the US Senate due to the 2014 Republican wave and Udall running a one issue campaign.

Senator Schumer makes us proud every day, standing up and speaking out as minority leader. We hoped he'd be majority leader, encouraged everyone to GOTV with that in mind when he ran again in November, and we're still hoping for that in 2018.

And I have special affection for Kirsten Gillibrand since she used to be my congresswoman. She did a great job here in NY-20, gave us Democratic representation for the first time in decades and is continuing her work in the Senate. She serves on Armed Services and Agriculture, stands up for our veterans on health care and speaks out for upstate farmers, we are a dairy state and upstate is largely rural. She's continued her advocacy for 9/11 first responders and is a leader in addressing sexual assault in the military. She won with over 70% the last time around and we're going to make sure she's reelected in 2018!

Kirsten Gillibrand has increasingly impressed me and I'd love to see her as a president or veep down the road.

Schumer is excellent as Minority Leader, although I'm hoping we'll see him as Majority Leader in 2018.

It never dawned on me that the election would turn out as it did, and I kept reminding others that Senator Schumer was likely to become Majority Leader! *sigh*

As for Kirsten Gillibrand, she was - and still is - enormously popular around here. I'm just extremely discouraged that her chosen successor, Scott Murphy (I worked on both of his campaigns), didn't get a second term! And now there is so much dissatisfaction and all these protests over the Trump-supporting Stefanik. Where were all these people last November??


Kirsten Gillibrand and President Clinton campaigning in 2006:

If you have Stephanik now but had Gillibrand as a congresswoman were you switched from the mostly blue 20th to the mostly red 21st in 2012?

Unfortunately I haven't paid as much attention to when or how districts change until very recently since I've somehow lucked out of being in a district that changed me from one to another. I just looked up a bit of info on how NY 'supposedly' redraws districts when required by census changes and am still confused since I'm not finding much about it. It looks like NY uses an advisory panel but don't have to take the advise? Was the switch based on logic or politics?

We became part of District 21, which meant we no longer had Republican Chris Gibson who beat Scott Murphy the second time, but Democrat Bill Owens from Essex County. But then he retired and personally introduced Aaron Woolf (I go to these things) who I liked a lot. His signature issue was infrastructure and he was big on women's issues since he's the Dad of a little girl. I made GOTV calls for him, too. But he lost to Elise Stefanik - and we're stuck with Republican representation again - of the worst possible kind since she not only loves Paul Ryan, but supports Trump.

On edit: My understanding was that it was based on population.

When Owens won it was a big deal that a Democrat had won because according to the news at the time this district was supposedly a pretty red at least as far as congress goes... although you wouldn't know it looking at Wikipedia's write up on the current 21st District (searching further up here was district 23). Owens could win up here because he was a moderate and pro-2nd Amendment and military which up here is HUGE, prob partially because of Fort Drum.

Pfft but the district changes confuse the heck out of me. Which is probably why I just look at who's running, their stances on issues (mostly to 'arm myself' against those who don't) and vote.

Stephanik is definitely a lapdog of Ryan and Trump. Woolf was an excellent candidate as was Derrick but there seemed to be a lot of outside money pouring in to help her and it's hard to fight the big bucks.

And Kirsten Gillibrand got an "A" rating from the NRA, too, though I understand she's backed off that since she's had kids. Scott Murphy basically took on her positions on the issues, but I got to know him a little since I worked on both of his campaigns and he'd stop by - he's local, after all - with his wife, Jen Hogan (from Hudson Falls), and the little Murphys. My impression of him was that he was both intelligent and sincere. He won the "special election" in 2009 - but he actually told me that it was by the smallest margin of anyone in the House.

And then he lost to Chris Gibson in 2010 which was extremely disappointing. I worked on that campaign, too, and went to their "debate," which was overrun by these senior citizens wearing red shirts who were quite disruptive - apparently they had been bused in. One of the big issues was "don't ask, don't tell" which ex-military Gibson supported, while Scott equated it to Truman's desegregation of the military...

Aaron Woolf made a great impression, I thought, and Bill Owens made the rounds with him, but I agree that there had to be money behind Stefanik. Compared to the Murphy campaign, it seemed like there wasn't much of an effort. And this time around, there was the Green candidate, too, which I immediately felt spelled trouble for the Democrats. He was very outspoken.

I know that we already have a Democratic candidate for 2018, but I haven't met him yet. He's started holding meetups already. But compared to the Gillibrand campaign - which sent President Clinton here! - it's beginning to feel like it did during the long John Sweeney reign - when the Democrats often didn't bother to field a candidate.

I had a friend who really liked him so learned more than I normally would about a Green candidate and if he were a Democrat I would have voted for him but I won't vote for any 3rd party candidate when there's too high a risk of a Republican winning and then attacking on issues I hold dear and who let's their ego get in the way of helping causes Dems and they have in common.

I haven't heard who the D candidate is yet. Hopefully we will soon and it's someone who can beat Stephanik.

I meant to go to his first Q&A session, but it's early days yet. And I won't vote third party either - I know someone who voted for John Anderson and have never let them forget it.

And the Green Party candidate was quite outspoken here. I watched the TV debate and he annoyed me, but not nearly as much as Stefanik.

Here's a Post Star article on Patrick Nelson:

http://poststar.com/news/local/government-and-politics/upstart-democratic-congressional-candidate-makes-his-case/article_4007c7b6-2528-5f8d-91e1-1d9b81384d20.html

Goodness but I had forgotten all about Anderson. I was 20 and that was my very first presidential election. I was raised by an old style Republican father and a Democratic step-mom and taught to look at politicians carefully and not just decide based on party. While I quickly discounted Reagan as too conservative, Anderson had some rather libertarian facets that I found interesting until I dug down deeper and decided that Carter still checked off more of my boxes.

I just checked and was surprised to see that Anderson is still alive at 95. My dad is the same age and still amazing and logic says more people are living longer but it still sort of surprises me when in see an age that high.

I have to give him credit for starting early, LOL, it seems like it was immediately after the election. But it's certainly a relief that someone is stepping up. When John Sweeney ran year after year, he often didn't have a challenger and there wasn't much Democratic support until Kirsten Gillibrand's campaign - which won!

And given the anger being directed at Stefanik, anyone challenging her is bound to attract public interest and support. But can he keep up interest and momentum for a year and a half?

Jimmy Carter was my first candidate, liked him right from the start. I didn't know much about politics - or much of anything - LOL - but the more I've learned about him over the years - and especially from listening to his 2014 autobiography more than once, the more I realize my beliefs about him were spot on.

over the years.

People and politics fascinated me from a rather young age and my interest was encouraged by my dad. As a kid I'd read pretty much everything I could get my hands on which included the newspaper (although I'd only skim the sports section.. lol). In the morning I'd watch 'Commander Ralph' and his 'Good Ship News' for kids and at night if the news was on we were watching it. My dad loved quizzing me on it but I enjoyed the challenge. (I've always been an odd duck..lol).

I had Ms. Gillibrand as a rep also.

I really liked her - still do. She was terrific for the district. Were you here in 2006? I was able to go to her rally at the Warren County Airport where President Clinton spoke which was more than a little impressive! He really is a charismatic speaker!

Are you in District 21 now? I'm just north of Glens Falls. Not that it makes a difference, since both NY-20 and NY-21 now have Republican representation. Though I think Elise Stefanik is the worse of the two, if I had to choose.

Nice to know you!

Roy Blunt, the republican, is a proud stooge of everything corrupt. He was a biggie on Trump's inaug. committee. All his immediate family members are lobbyists, I believe. He'll be one as soon as he's swept out in the tidal wave, I hope. Just another RW jerk to whom the public interest is way low on the list of priorities. He could really give a shit about the voters - that's what Karl Rove and Kris Kobach are for. I send smilin' Roy a lot of emails.

Claire McCaskill, the democrat, comes across as a sincere, knowledgeable person, able to empathize believeably. She's not liberal enough for my taste, but this is Missouri, after all, a state full of low-information xtians, for whom grampaw's religion is good enough, so she has to move right. My own brother is a big FOX adherent. One thing about Claire, in 2009 I went to a town hall she held at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO (my alma mater) and she stuck with the plan until the scheduled end. There were about 1,000 people there, and way more than half were loud, obnoxious teabaggers, drowning her out much of the time. They were rude and mean, but she stuck with it. Many of these jerks had been bussed in - I saw them getting off the busses with my own eyes. There was money behind that. And outside, all around the building, more NRA types with assault rifles and camo clothes strutting around like they were guarding the place - made them feel like men, I'm sure. Claire did not quit early and did not call the cops for an escort. I really admired that. These GOP snowflakes nowadays, facing hostile crowds, are not having to face NRA thugs threateningly flourishing their deadly toys, and they still run like rabbits. The subject of that 2009 town hall was the Affordable Care Act.

Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin

But I expect that to change in 2020

I have one democratic senator (Brown) who is great. Really looks out for people and very outspoken. Everyone else are republican and not worth a crap. Portman was so against homosexuality until his son came out now it's not so bad. Portman does the least he can do to stay in office, he's there for the paycheck and kickbacks. Trump wants to take most of the funding away for Lake Erie and dollars to doughnuts he'll vote for it. The hell with algal blooms and water you can't drink. He took $89,500 to give up my privacy why would he care about my water? Thanks for reading my rant, you really wouldn't me to get going on my congressman.

Perhaps this of you with good democratic Senators could post, from time to time, about something they have said or done that we should know. News about them. We need to hear about ALL of those Democrats who are trying achieve the goals we all share.

I rarely read about those people. I'd like to.

Again, thanks for contributing to this thread. I hope there will be many more threads to come that will help us all recognize those who are helping us.

Jeff Merkley is the Jr. Senator from Oregon. He has become an important, strong progressive voice in that body, most recently being front and center at the attempt to filibuster Neil Gorsuch.

Senator Merkley has the distinction of being the first United States Senator to come out in favor of Marijuana legalization. He will not be the last, of course, we here in Oregon are used to being ahead of the curve and setting trends that eventually wind their way even all the way back east.

Senator Wyden has been a powerful and important member of the Senate for years. Just as Jeff Merkley beat the curve in embracing marijuana legalization- taking the obvious, morally correct position before the political conventional wisdom dictates-- Wyden was the first member of the US Senate to come out in favor of marriage equality.

He was one of the 23 Senators who distinguished themselves by voting against the IWR in 2002. And has been front and center on Justice issues, technology issues, 4th Amendment/unlawful surveillance and the like.

It is a pleasure to vote for him...he has always been for the working man and woman...He is progressive and so far has managed to get elected in purple Ohio...fingers crossed. He would make a fine presidential candidate in 2020.

workers when on strike. And yes, he would be an excellent presidential candidate and a great President to boot.

Both were good governors for four years apiece - alas, Virginia does not allow for a repeat consecutive term. In general, they are good Democrats. They're both a bit centrist for my tastes, but this is Virginia. They step up to the plate in general when necessary.