Michele Bachmann (6 April 1956-) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-MN 6) from 3 January 2007 to 3 January 2015, succeeding Mark Kennedy and preceding Tom Emmer. She was a major figure in the Tea Party movement, founding its congressional caucus.
Biography[]
Michele Amble was born in Waterloo, Iowa in 1956 into a family of Norwegian Lutheran Democrats, and her family moved to Minnesota when she was 13. Bachmann was originally a pro-life Democrat who took part in sidewalk counseling, and she worked on Jimmy Carter's 1976 presidential campaign alongside her Swiss husband Marcus Bachmann. However, she opposed his liberal approach to public policy, support for legalized abortion, and the increase of gas prices, and she worked for Ronald Reagan's campaign in 1980. From 1988 to 1993 she worked as an attorney for the IRS, and she quit to become a full-time mother when her fourth child was born. In 2000, she decided to return to politics, and she served in the Minnesota Senate from 2001 to 2007, when she was elected to the US House of Representatives. She supported the teaching of creationism in public school, opposed anti-bullying legislation, opposed minimum wage increases, supported limited taxation, supported increased oil drilling, supported nuclear power, called for phasing out Social Security and Medicare, opposed illegal immigration, opposed same-sex marriage, and opposed abortion. Bachmann was an early supporter of the Tea Pary movement, and she helped to found its congressional caucus. She failed in her 2012 bid for the presidency, and she left the House in 2015.