by Barack Obama in 2009. She was a US congresswoman from 1997 to 2001, when she was elected to the Senate. A mother and grandmother, she is the daughter of a second world war veteran. She has focused intensely on veterans' affairs in Michigan -- the state is home to 750,000 -- opening clinics, authoring legislation to protect their healthcare and education benefits and creating programs to help those with PTSD and other traumatic brain injuries. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) Elizabeth Warren with her husband Bruce Mann during an election night rally at the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel in Boston. Photograph: Michael Dwyer/AP Warren is possibly the most high-profile female candidate of the year, having reclaimed Ted Kennedy's seat for the Democrats , from Republican Scott Brown. A Harvard Law School professor with a background in bankruptcy law, she was appointed by senator Harry Reid to oversee and evaluate the government's bailout of financial institutions in 2008. After working as a special assistant to the president. Warren was a strong candidate to run the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Opposition from Treasury secretary Tim Geithner and Republican members of Congress killed her chances and she returned to Harvard, where she decided to run for the Senate. She has a son and a daughter and has co-authored two economic books with her daughter. She is a natural candidate for the Senate banking committee. Senator-elect Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin) A 50-year-old who is being hailed across the country as the first openly