Sen. Barbara Mikulski, the longest serving woman in congressional history, said Monday she won’t seek another term next year.
The Baltimore Democrat, first elected to Congress in 1976 and to the Senate 10 years later, rose to the top of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, where key spending decisions are made.
“I had to decide whether to spend my time fighting to keep my job or fighting for your job,” she said Monday. “Do I spend my time raising money or raising hell to meet your day-to-day needs? Do I spend my time focusing on my election or the next generation. Do I spend the next two years making promises about what I will do or making progress on what I can do right now.
“The more I thought about it, the more the answer became really clear – I want to campaign for you. That’s why I’m here to announce I won’t be seeking a 6th term as a United States Senator for Maryland.”
Mikulski has a reputation as both a tough advocate for the less fortunate and a civil dealmaker. Mikulski, 78, who was one of two women when she was first elected to the Senate, has won praise from both Democrats and Republicans for her efforts.
Mikulski never left her East Baltimore roots. She grew up in a working class Polish neighborhood. Her grandfather ran a popular bakery and her father was a grocer. She continued to live in Fells Point, part of that area, until moving uptown in 1996.
She has a master’s degree in social work, and became a community organizer in Baltimore. She gained political notice in the early 1970s when she led a successful battle against building a massive freeway through the heart of ethnic East Baltimore.
Mikulski did something outsiders rarely do in that city – she took on the establishment and won. That led to a City Council seat in 1971, and growing national prominence. When she won her Senate seat in 1986, she became the first woman Democrat elected in her own right.