Education:
Anoka High School. B.A., Winona State University (Political Science, English). J.D., Coburn School of Law. L.L.M., Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary.

Term:
3rd. Elected in 2006.

District:
MN-CD6

Committees:
Financial Services

Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Bills Sponsored:
112th Congress

Bills Cosponsored:
112th Congress

Congressional Record:
112th Congress

Capitol Address:
103 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515

Capitol phone:
202-225-2331

Capitol fax:
202-225-6475

Campaign site: michelebachmann.com

Twitter:
@michelebachmann

Facebook (standard): RepMicheleBachmann

Facebook (campaign): TeamBachmann

Wikipedia:
Michele_Bachmann

PIM ANALYSIS:

Bachmann’s time in Congress has represented a shrewd and sustained end-run around the traditional means of acquiring standing and recognition in the U.S. House. She appeared to recognize from the outset that prominence in conservative media circles meant power in Washington; upon joining the House in 2007, she devoted a striking amount of time and staff resources to pursuing airtime on the talk radio and cable TV chat circuit. The efforts scored her a string of first-term appearances on Fox News and other networks that was notable by the usual standards of a freshman House member, but Bachmann did not really become a media doyenne until the fall of 2008, when she made remarks on a cable TV show, MSNBC’s Hardball, about investigating anti-American views among members of Congress.

And in Bachmann’s second term, a couple of additional circumstantial factors—Sarah Palin’s stardom and the rise of the Tea Party—combined to raise her profile still higher. The GOP base’s electric response to Palin in 2008 and afterward created demand for other folksy, fire-breathing women conservatives in the same media outlets that Bachmann was already cultivating—and even if she hadn’t been working them, perhaps no one fit the post-Palin bill better than Bachmann anyway. Her status as a frontline media source on lightning rod politics stories was further enhanced by her canny and enthusiastic early embrace of the Tea Party banner in 2010.

Before going to Congress, Bachmann spent six years in the state Senate. While there, she led a vigorous but unsuccessful attempt to place a ban on gay marriage in Minnesota’s Constitution. She was the first Republican woman from Minnesota elected to the House. Bachmann grew up in Anoka and met her husband, Marcus, in college. After law school, she was an attorney with the U.S. Treasury Department in St. Paul. She first got involved in politics through conservative social groups like the Maple River Education Foundation (later renamed EdWatch).

Bachmann filed paperwork to seek the Republican presidential nomination with the Federal Election Commission on June 13, 2011, and made a formal announcement during a visit to her hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, on June 27.