ABOUT SENATOR BOXER - for Kids

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer won election to the U.S. Senate in 1992 and was officially sworn in as a Senator in January 1993. She won re-election to the Senate in 1998, and again most recently in 2004.

Senator Boxer grew up in New York. She went to public schools in Brooklyn, including Wingate High School and Brooklyn College. She received her college degree in economics from Brooklyn College in 1962 and became a stockbroker on New York's famous Wall Street.

A few years later, Senator Boxer and her husband, Stewart Boxer, moved to Greenbrae, California in Marin County. She raised two children, worked as a reporter for a local newspaper and as a volunteer on local political campaigns.

In 1972, Senator Boxer ran her first campaign as a candidate for a position on the Marin County Board of Supervisors. She lost the election, but she did not give up. She decided to run again in 1976 and this time she won. Eventually, she became the first woman to be the President of the Marin County Board of Supervisors. In 1982, Senator Boxer ran for and won election to the U.S. House of Representatives. Ten years later, Senator Boxer and California's other Senator, Dianne Feinstein, were both elected to the U.S. Senate. They made history by becoming California's first two women Senators and the first two women to ever represent any state at the same time in the Senate.

As a U.S. Senator, one of Senator Boxer's main responsibilities is to vote on bills in Congress. For example, Senator Boxer has voted a bill to give more money to schools to fix leaking roofs, replace broken lights, and make other repairs and a bill to require that guns be sold with child safety locks. Senator Boxer can also write bills. In 1997, for example, she wrote a bill to encourage businesses to donate computer equipment to schools. Her bill became law and she has visited dozens of California schools to help businesses make their donations. Some of Senator Boxer's top priorities are education, crime, the environment, and health care.

Senator Boxer enjoys spending time with her family, which includes her husband, her two children who are now adults, and her two grandsons.