Michele Bachmann life and biography

Michele Marie Bachmann is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Minnesota's 6th congressional district, a post she has held since 2007. She is currently a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.

Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Michele Bachmann became a born-again Christian at the age of 16. After earning a law degree, Bachmann became a local conservative activist, protesting abortion clinics and state-mandated educational standards. In 2000 she was elected to the Minnesota state Senate, and earned a repuation for her conservatism.


In 2006, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann became the first Republican woman to be elected to represent Minnesota in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a self-proclaimed “Constitutional Conservative”, Bachmann is committed to fixing Washington’s broken ways by advocating for America’s adherence to the Constitution. Bachmann has become known on Capitol Hill as a member who champions tax reform, works to cut wasteful government spending and supports limiting the size of our government. She also is devoted to the repeal of ObamaCare, a legislation she believes is an example of government’s recent uninhibited growth. In Bachmann’s view, the government needs to make the kind of serious spending decisions that many families and small businesses across America have been forced to make. As a believer in the traditional values upon which this country was founded, she consistently defends America’s religious liberties and the importance of the family as the first unit of government. She also has continuously worked to defend the right to life for all Americans, including the unborn.

Bachmann is a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the Financial Services Committee. She has taken the opportunity of serving on the Intelligence Committee to regularly advocate for peace through strength to ensure America’s national security. As she vowed in her Oath of Office, Bachmann continues to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Bachmann is devoted to doing her part to ensure America’s safety. As a member of the Financial Services Committee, Bachmann has been given keen insight into the current housing crisis and credit crunch. This insight has led her to be a staunch opponent of the taxpayer-funded bailout of Wall Street and the Dodd-Frank legislation.

As the federal government continues to grow under the current administration, Bachmann was honored to establish the Tea Party Caucus in July 2010. She is proud to stand with the Tea Party to call for lower taxes, renewed focus on the Constitution and smaller government.

Prior to serving in the U.S. Congress, Bachmann served in the Minnesota State Senate from 2000-2006. As a Minnesota State Senator, she championed the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. Before holding elected office, Bachmann worked on hundreds of civil and criminal cases as a federal tax litigation attorney. Through her experience as a tax attorney, Bachmann came to understand firsthand the need to simplify the current tax code and reduce taxes on families and small businesses. Yet, it was her role as a mother of five and foster mother of 23 that led her to call for the abolishment of Goals 2000 and the Profiles of Learning and start a charter school for at-risk kids in Minnesota.

Bachmann is a graduate of Anoka High School and Winona State University. After receiving her J.D. at the O.W. Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University and an L.L.M. in Tax Law at the College of William and Mary, she along with her husband, Marcus moved their young family to Stillwater, Minnesota. There they opened a small business health care practice that employs nearly fifty people. The Bachmanns, who have been married over thirty years, have five children, Lucas, Harrison, Elisa, Caroline and Sophia. The Bachmanns have also cared for 23 foster children, inspiring Bachmann’s tireless efforts in Congress on behalf of America’s foster and adopted children, a role that has earned her bipartisan praise.

She is proud to represent Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District, a district which contains parts of six counties, stretching from Stillwater past Saint Cloud, including several suburbs of the Twin Cities.

In 2010, long since having become a darling of the GOP's conservative base, she originated the Tea Party Caucus in Congress. While she was passed over that year in her bid for a position in the Republican congressional leadership, she has maintained her status as a popular national leader of the American right, and is preparing for a potential presidential run in 2012. "I think what this has changed is the grass roots, and what they're looking for. Our phones have been ringing off the hook, our Facebook has been lit up, our donations are pouring in. And people are saying, 'Michele, jump in, we want you to run.'" In June 2011, Bachmann officially announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for the presidency in Waterloo, Iowa — the town of her birth, which happens to be located in the crucial early caucus state. Refusing, in the early days of her campaign, to attack friends such as Tim Pawlenty and Sarah Palin among the prospective Republican field, Bachmann focused instead on unseating the incumbent president: "This is really a referendum on Barack Obama," she said. "I'm not comparing myself to any other candidate, other than Barack Obama."

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