Workhorse: Sen. Maria Cantwell seeks a Fifth Term

The advent of 24/7 news cycles on Cable TV has spotlighted show horses of American politics, from a snarling Sen. Ted Cruz on the right to puff piece interviews of Rep. Pramila Jayapal by MSNBC hosts.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) does not keep such company. She is serious and focused, in many ways a throwback to Sen. Henry Jackson, who held the seat for 30 years and shaped environmental and defense legislation.

Cantwell won her Senate seat in 2000 upsetting GOP Sen. Slade Gorton by just 2,129 votes. She is a heavy favorite over Republican Dr. Raul Garcia as she seeks a fifth term. She chairs the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. As well, she holds seats on two other A-list panels, Senate Finance and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committees.

It’s a heavy workload. Cantwell is a notoriously demanding boss, and just as demanding on herself. She has worked details of legislation, starting as a young state legislator who helped shape the state’s Growth Management Act. She has since, in the U.S. Senate, taken on Enron’s energy scams, the safety of oil tanker cars, and regulation of derivatives in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, commonly known as Dodd-Frank. She held out for creation of a consumer-protection division as part of the legislative response to the Great Recession.

https://www.postalley.org/2024/10/29/workhorse-sen-maria-cantwell-seeks-a-fifth-term/