Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Before her election to the Senate, Elizabeth Warren practiced commercial law and is one of the most-cited experts in consumer protection. Her political, financial and lawful thought was the foundation to the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Sen. Warren serves on the Senate Special Committee on Aging, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and on the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, and she is the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Economic Policy. Warren was also the backbone behind the recovery from the financial crisis in 2010. She advises Obama on Wall Street reform and is recognized as a leader in the Democratic Party. She is so loved by her party that she was encouraged to run as a candidate in the 2016 presidential election. To many, she is seen as the perfect balance between Hillary and Bernie.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y.
Stefanik is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the age of 30, and she won her seat by a landslide of 20 points. She is a freshman on the rise and the powerhouse of her congressional class elected by her peers as the Freshman Representative to the Policy Committee. Stefanik has already co-sponsored over 79 pieces of legislation and in May introduced her first bill, the Common Sense Waiver Act of 2015. This freshman congresswoman is one of the first millennial female GOP leaders, and the Republican party plans to use her leadership to appeal to first-time voters in the 2016 race.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
After serving just one term in the House of Representatives in 2007, Gillibrand won her Senate seat in 2009, replacing Hillary Clinton. In 2012 Sen. Gillibrand won her first six-year term with a record-high number of votes, winning 60 out of 62 of New York's counties. The junior senator from New York brands herself on internal government policies including transparency and honesty. Senator Gillibrand was the first senator to publicly release her tax records while in office. She also passed legislation to make insider trading within Congress illegal and has revolutionized efforts to address Congressional ethics in Washington. Gillibrand was named by TIME Magazine one of the top 100 most influential people in the world.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska
Sen. Murkowski is the first Alaska-born senator in the U.S. Senate and only the sixth senator from Alaska to serve. She holds leadership positions on various committee assignments — she is the Chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and serves on the Appropriations Committee as chair of the Interior and Environment Subcommittees. She has been the sponsor of 11 pieces of legislation that were passed as laws, a tricky task in a polarized congress. She also embraces feminism and is the sponsor of a concurrent resolution honoring the contribution of the women, symbolized by "Rosie the Riveter," who served on the home front during World War II.
Minority Leader of the House, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Nancy Pelosi is the highest-ranking female politician to date. She was the first female Speaker of the House and was, therefore, third in line for the presidency at the time. She has retained a leadership position for the past 14 years and is currently the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. As Speaker of the House, Pelosi was the powerhouse behind the passage of the Affordable Healthcare Act, sponsored legislation that restored the ability of women to fight discriminatory pay and repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." As the Democratic leader, she watched her party fall from the majority and still maintains an iron grip on the Democratic Caucus, blocking all Democratic votes on nearly every legislation Speaker Boehner has endorsed.
