Senator Al Franken was born on May 21, 1951, and grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He graduated from Harvard in 1973, where he met his wife of 33 years, Franni. They have two adult children: daughter Thomasin and son Joe. Al spent 37 years as a comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host and has taken part in seven USO tours. In 2008, Al was elected to the Senate as a member of the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) Party from Minnesota, where he currently sits on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pension Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the Committee on Indian Affairs, and the Special Committee on Aging.

State Senator Tarryl Clark is the candidate who will defeat Congresswoman Michele Bachmann in November, 2010! Tarryl was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in a special election in late 2005, putting a previously Republican seat back into the Democratic column. She was re-elected in 2006 by double-digit margins – earning the highest vote totals in her district. Tarryl won through a commitment to grassroots voter contact – door-to-door, person to person, with an army of volunteers – and she brings this same commitment and style to her campaign for Minnesota’s 6th Congressional seat.

As a legislator, Tarryl is a voice for fiscal responsibility and sensible solutions. She’s an effective leader on behalf of her constituents and a champion for issues including early childhood and higher education, health care, serving our veterans, caring for seniors, and investing in Minnesota communities.

In 2006, Tarryl was elected by her colleagues to serve as the Senate’s Assistant Majority Leader, where she has been a statewide voice on issues from job growth to transportation to economic development.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has called Tarryl a “rising star,” and KSTP-TV describes Tarryl as a “strong voice of the DFL-controlled Senate.”

Before her election to the Legislature, Tarryl dedicated her career to public service. Tarryl has worked for community-based organizations, including the Girl Scouts, YWCA, and Habitat for Humanity. As an attorney, Tarryl devoted her work to helping senior citizens, children, veterans and working families at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, Community Action Partnerships and Head Start programs.

Tarryl is proud to have the support of dozens of organizations representing tens of thousands of voters across the district. With their support – and the support of over 24,000 individual donors – Tarryl’s campaign has shattered fundraising records and is poised to win in November.

Learn more about Tarryl and her campaign at www.tarrylclark.com.

Over the past 40 years, Raúl has built an exceptional record of public service. He began his public career when he joined with other advocates to encourage local governments to invest in older and minority neighborhoods in Southern Arizona. Raúl served on the Tucson Unified School District Board from 1974 to 1986 and the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1989 to 2002. While on the Board of Supervisors, he worked to improve domestic partner benefits, labor rights, and transparency in government. His environmental leadership led to the creation of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, one of the most successful and innovative conservation systems in the country.

Since his election to Congress in 2002, education, employee rights and the environment have been among Raúl’s top policy concerns. He has played an active role in oil drilling oversight since before the Deepwater Horizon disaster and led the progressive effort to improve the Affordable Care Act. His tenure as co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus has seen major successes for the progressive movement, including the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and many of the provisions in the recently enacted Wall Street reform law. Raúl has a long history of both grassroots action and effective Congressional leadership, and he looks forward to continuing his work with outside groups to achieve the best policy outcomes and make government responsive to the people once again.

Born and raised in Tyler, Texas, Chuck Rocha followed in his father’s footsteps as a union worker for the Kelley – Springfield Tire Company, joining United Rubber Workers Local 746 at age 19. Three years later, he became the youngest elected officer in the local’s history. In 1998, Chuck was appointed the National Political Director of the United Steelworkers, America’s largest industrial union. He was one of the youngest people (and at the time, the only Latino) to serve as the National Political Director of a major U.S. labor union.

Chuck led a political department known for youth, innovation and dramatic results. He
grew the Steelworkers’ Activist Corps to a disciplined operation made up of nearly 12,000 volunteers and 435 full-time organizers. Mr. Rocha’s leadership has perfected the Steelworkers’ political operation by blending traditional grass-roots, membership-based organizing with state-of-the-art technology and communications with great success. In 2008, members of the USW supported Barack Obama for President by an overwhelming 72%, compared to 32% support from non-union members of the same demographic.

Chuck also served as National Labor Director for Dick Gephardt and John Edwards during the 2004/2008 presidential election cycles. He is a graduate of the Harvard University Trade Union program, and currently serves on the executive boards of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the National Young Democrats, and LCLAA.

The Blue Green Alliance is a national partnership of labor and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the green economy. With partners
including the USW, Sierra Club, CWA, NRDC, LIUNA, SEIU, UWUA, ATU, and the SMWIA, the Blue Green Alliance unites more than eight and a half million people in the pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a green economy.

EMILY's List President Stephanie Schriock is a recognized leader, bringing more than 12 years of fundraising, management and strategic planning experience to EMILY's List. She’s been described as "inspirational," a "star in American politics," and "a spectacular campaign manager." All of this, and she can make Senator Al Franken laugh while she's doing it.

Stephanie has been at the forefront of some of the most challenging and innovative political campaigns of the past decade. She served as the national finance director for Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, leading the team that revolutionized political fundraising, exceeding previous records by raising more than $52 million in a Democratic primary. Stephanie then helped now-U.S. Senator Jon Tester unseat an 18-year Republican incumbent U.S. senator in a state with an eight-point Republican advantage.

When Democratic leaders were looking for the right person to manage Al Franken's Senate campaign in Minnesota, they turned to Stephanie. Franken's $18 million campaign was one of the most- watched races of 2008. After an extremely close vote on Election Day failed to produce a clear victor, Stephanie managed a $12 million recount operation that involved four law firms, 180 staff, and nearly 2000 volunteers.

A graduate of Mankato State University in Minnesota, Stephanie has never forgotten the values she learned growing up in the strong labor town of Butte, Montana. Montana has a proud history of electing women: the first woman to win a seat in Congress, Jeannette Rankin, was elected from Montana in 1916.

Linda Chavez-Thompson’s extraordinary story began when she was born in Lorenzo, Texas on August 3, 1944. At the age of ten, she started working for thirty-cents an hour hoeing cotton with her brothers and sisters. In ninth grade, she had to leave school and to go to work full time to support her family.
She continued picking cotton in the fall months and cleaning homes in the surrounding cotton farm community to earn enough money to help support her family.

As a young woman, Linda learned the value of hard work. In addition to learning English language skills, Chavez-Thompson taught herself to read and write Spanish, a skill that led to her first job with a union. In December 1967, she was hired as a Secretary by the Construction Laborer’s Union in Lubbock. Over the next forty years, Chavez-Thompson kept working to build a long and impressive career working on behalf of working people, fighting to bring fairness and opportunity to Texans in communities across the state. After twenty-five years representing public servants, culminating as Texas State Director for the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees before being elected Executive Vice-President of the National AFL-CIO — the first woman and the first person of color to hold that position. In January of 1997, Chavez-Thompson was elected to serve as Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee, a position she continues to hold today.

In 1997, Chavez-Thompson was appointed by President Bill Clinton to his Race Advisory Board, and a year later, to the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities. In 2004, at the American Association of People with Disabilities’ (AAPD) Leadership Gala, Chavez-Thompson was awarded with an award named after her – the Linda Chavez Thompson Award – meant to recognize her lifelong commitment to those with disabilities and families within the labor movement. Chavez-Thompson retired from her role with the Nationa AFL-CIO in 2007.

As the Democratic nominee for Lt. Governor of Texas, Chavez-Thompson has devoted her campaign to increasing economic opportunities through education. To find out more, or to support her campaign, visit www.TexansforLinda.com.