Capital Dames: 10 Powerful Women in DC
ELLE MAGAZINE
Partisan gridlock may be the norm in DC, but not for these women who got us thinking: We’d be better off if girls really did run the world
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
The Party Leader
She entered the Florida state house at 26, the youngest woman ever to get there, and today, Wasserman Schultz, 45, the funny, fast-talking New York–born mother of three, is the telegenic (those curls!) member of Congress who’s represented South Florida since 2005. She’s often seen on TV explaining why Democratic values like reproductive freedom and affordable health care matter, or she’s in front of the cameras fighting back, unflapped, when Republicans disagree. “After 20 years in office, I have the skin of an alligator,” she says. A breast-cancer survivor, she had seven surgeries in a year, including a double mastectomy, all scheduled during congressional breaks so she could keep her illness private until it was behind her. Last year she was tapped by President Obama to chair the Democratic National Committee. “It enables me to champion the things my constituents care about on a much bigger stage,” she says. Her contagiously tearful reading of the resignation letter of her best friend, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, on the House floor in January indicated the deep feeling beneath her alligator skin. “People think of me as being outwardly very intense, very focused professionally, and I am. But most people who don’t know me don’t realize that I’m warm, caring, and fiercely loyal to my friends and family.”