Democrat Barbara Mikulski was first elected as senator from Maryland in 1986.

Born on July 20, 1936, in Baltimore, Mikulski graduated from Mount Saint Agnes College in 1958 and earned a master's of social work from the University of Maryland in 1965. A Catholic, she is single.

Before entering political life, from 1958–63, she was a social worker for Catholic Charities and the Baltimore Department of Social Services. From 1966–1970 she was the assistant chief of community organizing for the Baltimore Department of Social Services. For the following five years, she taught sociology at Loyola College.

While teaching, she served on the Baltimore City Council. In 1977 she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she served until 1987. Mikulski was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986 and has been reelected ever since. In 1998 she received almost 71 percent of the vote in her home state of Maryland.

She is serving as Democratic conference secretary of the Senate leadership and is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committees.