Miami University

Alumna to fill 50th Democratic Senate seat after recount

Democrat Maria Cantwell, a 1981 Miami graduate, won the nation’s last vacant Senate seat – splitting it 50/50 – in Washington state’s recent U.S. Senate vote recount.

Cantwell served in the Washington state legislature from 1987-1992 and was elected to Congress in 1992 representing Washington state’s 1st District.

She will be on leave from her position as senior vice president of consumer and e-commerce at RealNetworks Inc., the leading supplier of software for playing audio and video over the Internet.

Her Senate campaign was financed almost entirely by her RealNetworks holdings, in a move to forgo political action committee donors.

Cantwell is a native of Beach Grove, Ind. She received a B.A. from Miami in public administration.

Cantwell – who will be the ninth woman in the Senate – will join Miami alumnus Mike DeWine, Republican senator from Ohio, in Congress. DeWine received a B.S. in education in 1969. Three of DeWine’s children are also Miami alumni.

Date Published: 12/14/2000
Volume: 20   Number: 19