Tammy Duckworth became the first Thai-American woman ever elected to the US Congress today, after beating freshman Republican Joe Walsh in Illinois’ 8th congressional district.
The Bangkok-born 44-year-old Democrat was born to an American military father and a Thai mother. She followed her father’s footsteps into the military and fought in the Iraq War as helicopter pilot in the Army. Duckworth lost both her legs when the UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter she was co-piloting was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in 2004. She was the first female double amputee from the Iraq War.
[[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”23763″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”355″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”598″}}]]
Duckworth attended International School Bangkok briefly and graduated from with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii and an MA in international Affairs from George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Walsh, her opponent in the congressional election, was a far right Tea Party favorite and repeatedly attacker her for promoting her military service too much.
Haters gonna hate.
Congrats Tammy!
Her victory speech from Illinois is embedded below:
