Barbara Ann Mikulski (born 1936) became the first Democratic woman elected to the United States Senate to hold a seat not previously held by her husband.

Barbara Ann Mikulski is known as the feisty senator from Baltimore, she is also the first Democratic woman ever to have served in both Houses of Congress, and the first woman ever to win a statewide election in her home state of Maryland.

"We elected a Democratic woman named Barbara and somebody named Mikulski, and the Senate won't be the same from now on!" said Mikulski after capturing the seat left open by the retirement of Republican Charles McC. Mathias, Jr., in November of 1986. Described by Time magazine as "a four-foot-11-inch bundle of energy with a voice like a Baltimore harbor foghorn," Mikulski swept past her Republican opponent, Linda Chavez, with 61 percent of the vote. Then-president Ronald Reagan, who had campaigned in...