Ladda Tammy Duckworth[3] (born March 12, 1968) is an American politician and retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel serving as the junior United States senator from Illinois since 2017.

In 2004, when her Black Hawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents, she lost both legs and some mobility in her right arm.

[4] Despite her injuries, she was awarded a medical waiver to continue serving in the Illinois Army National Guard for another ten years until she retired as a lieutenant colonel in 2014.

[7] Duckworth serves on the Senate Armed Services; Commerce, Science, & Transportation; Foreign Relations; and Veterans' Affairs Committees.

[14] Her father was a Baptist,[15] who after his military service worked with the United Nations and international companies in refugee, housing, and development programs.

[29][30] She became a commissioned officer in the United States Army Reserve in 1992 and chose to fly helicopters[28] because it was one of the few combat jobs open to women at that time.

[39] In 2019, Duckworth participated in the National Air and Space Museum's "The Military Women Aviators Oral History Initiative (MWAOHI)" project alongside fourteen other veteran women aviators, including Olga Custodio, Sarah Deal, Stayce Harris, Jeannie Leavitt, Nicole Malachowski, Sally Murphy, Tammie Shults, Jacqueline Van Ovost, Lucy Young, and Kim "K. C." Campbell.

[40] On November 21, 2006, several weeks after losing her first congressional campaign, Duckworth was appointed director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs by Governor Rod Blagojevich.

[55] After longtime incumbent Republican Henry Hyde announced his retirement from Congress, several candidates began campaigning for the open seat.

Duckworth won the Democratic primary with a plurality of 44%, defeating 2004 nominee Christine Cegelis with 40%, and Wheaton College professor Lindy Scott with 16%.

For the general election, Duckworth was endorsed by EMILY's List, a political action committee that supports female Democratic candidates who back abortion rights.

She defeated former Deputy Treasurer of Illinois Raja Krishnamoorthi for the Democratic nomination on March 20, 2012, then faced incumbent Republican Joe Walsh in the general election.

[61][62] Walsh generated controversy when in July 2012, at a campaign event, he accused Duckworth of politicizing her military service and injuries, saying "my God, that's all she talks about.

[67] In the 2014 general election, Duckworth faced Republican nominee Larry Kaifesh, a United States Marine Corps officer who had recently left active duty as a colonel.

[70] On April 3, 2013, Duckworth publicly returned 8.4% ($1,218) of her congressional salary for that month to the United States Department of Treasury in solidarity with furloughed government workers.

"[86] GovTrack also found that in the first session of the 116th Congress, Duckworth ranked first in favorably reporting bills out of committee and "Got influential cosponsors the most often compared to Senate sophomores.

In January 2018, when the federal government shut down after the Senate could not agree on a funding bill, Duckworth responded to President Trump's accusations that the Democrats were putting "unlawful immigrants" ahead of the military: I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible.

And I have a message for Cadet Bone Spurs: If you cared about our military, you'd stop baiting Kim Jong Un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops, and millions of innocent civilians, in danger.

[94][96] On April 15, 2020, the Trump administration invited Duckworth to join a bipartisan task force on the reopening of the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"[100] On January 3, 2021, Duckworth received a vote for Speaker of the House of Representatives from Jared Golden despite not being a member of that legislative body and therefore not a serious candidate.

[101] Duckworth was participating in the certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol.

[103] In June 2022, President Biden sent Duckworth to Taiwan, where she held a press conference with Tsai Ing-wen to announce the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade in the wake of fears of angering China by the other partners to the May 2022 Indo-Pacific Economic Framework.

[110] In June 2023, Duckworth criticized Senator Kyrsten Sinema for proposing legislation to limit the amount of time an airplane pilot needs to train for certification.

Biden nominated Duckworth as vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, along with Gretchen Whitmer, Keisha Lance Bottoms and Filemon Vela Jr.[124] In April 2019, Duckworth was one of 12 senators to sign a bipartisan letter to top senators on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development advocating that the Energy Department be granted maximum funding for carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), arguing that American job growth could be stimulated by investment in viable options to capture carbon emissions and expressing disagreement with Trump's 2020 budget request to combine the two federal programs that include carbon capture research.

[126] During her unsuccessful 2006 congressional campaign, Duckworth called on Congress to audit the estimated $437 billion spent on overseas military and foreign aid since September 11, 2001.

[128] In October 2006, The Sunday Times reported that Duckworth agreed with General Sir Richard Dannatt, the British Army chief, that the presence of coalition troops was exacerbating the conflict in Iraq.

[132] On June 6, 2021, Duckworth and Senators Dan Sullivan and Christopher Coons visited Taipei in an U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport to meet President Tsai Ing-wen and Minister Joseph Wu during the pandemic outbreak of Taiwan to announce President Biden's donation plan of 750,000 COVID-19 vaccines included in the global COVAX program.

[141] In August 2018, Duckworth was one of 17 senators to sign a letter spearheaded by Kamala Harris to United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen demanding that the Trump administration take immediate action in attempting to reunite 539 migrant children with their families, citing each passing day of inaction as intensifying "trauma that this administration has needlessly caused for children and their families seeking humanitarian protection.

[143][144] In 2011, Chicago's Access Living honored her for her work on behalf of veterans with disabilities, giving her the Gordon H. Mansfield Congressional Leadership Award.

[145] Duckworth is heavily decorated for her service in Iraq, with over 10 distinct military honors, most notably the Purple Heart, an award her Marine father had also received.