Long Bio

Niki Tsongas represents the Fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts which includes the old industrial cities of Haverhill, Methuen, Lawrence and Lowell in the Merrimack Valley as well as the Boston suburbs of Concord, Acton, Wayland and Sudbury.  She is the first woman from Massachusetts elected to the U.S. Congress in twenty-five years. 

Congresswoman Tsongas serves on the House Armed Services Committee and the Budget Committee where she will help make sure we provide our servicemen and women with the equipment and protection they need, and address the devastating deficits and debt created over the last eight years so that we can fund the real priorities of the American people.  

Niki Tsongas is known for her roots in the Fifth District and her year’s of public service to the region. The Lowell Sun described Niki Tsongas as having “experience, dedication and deep understanding of the 5th District as a whole.” 

And, the chairman of Lowell Publishing Co. - who has been with the Sun since 1959 - wrote only a few weeks into her tenure, "she clearly recognizes the role she needs to play in stimulating the economy of the region and is focused on job development."

Tsongas grew up the eldest of four sisters in a military family, an experience that would shape much of her approach to life—teaching her the purpose of service and sacrifice, the importance of working for your community, and the value of family.

She was born April 26, 1946 in Chico, California. Niki's mother, Marian Susan Wyman, was an artist and copywriter. Her father, Colonel Russell Elmer Sauvage, served as a civil engineer in the United States Air Force and was a survivor of the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor.

By the time Niki was 14, her family had been stationed at air bases all across the US and Europe, including California, Texas, Virginia, and Germany, where her father was part of the team that oversaw the build out of Ramstein Air Force Base—the very air base currently used to bring US soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center.

Niki attended an American high school in Japan while her father was stationed at Fuchu Air Force Base and then spent one year at Michigan State before attending Smith College in Northampton, MA.

“I was in high school in Japan when President Kennedy was assassinated, and I remember how that country mourned just as much as I did. Even across cultures, I think we all knew just how much we lost that day.”

In 1967, with her father now stationed at the Pentagon, Niki spent the summer between her junior and senior years in Alexandria, Virginia.  It was then that she met Paul Tsongas who was working as an intern for then Fifth District Congressman Brad Morse.

“We knew we were going to get married within a month of meeting one another. But I had to finish college, and Paul had another tour in the Peace Corps to complete, and so I returned to Smith and Paul to St. Thomas to train volunteers.”

In 1968, inspired by the late John F. Kennedy’s vision for a new and better world, Niki found herself participating in American politics for the first time—as a volunteer for Eugene McCarthy’s campaign for president. She spent the winter months traveling throughout New Hampshire with the anti-Vietnam war candidate and fell in love with the positive approach of his campaign.

“I just remember how great it was to see all of these people engaging in politics—the way everyone would gather in those New Hampshire homes to meet McCarthy and ask him their questions. It was a very personal and intimate approach to government.”

After graduating from Smith, Niki moved to New York City where she took a job as a social worker for the Department of Welfare. Paul meanwhile returned to Lowell where he started to work on his race for city council. However, the two could only take a year of the buses, trains, and planes between Massachusetts and New York to see each other, before they married in 1969 and took up permanent residence in Lowell.

Her introduction to the Merrimack Valley was described in the Boston Globe:  “Tsongas was an Air Force brat, a woman who grew up on three continents and had never seen an old mill town until [her husband Paul] took her to the Merrimack Valley to meet the family. She, too, would come to embrace Lowell, a city that embraced her as well. ‘To me, it was all new,’ she said. ‘But it's the only hometown I've ever had. It's a real community,’” 

Niki took a job with the Catholic Charitable Bureau and helped Paul with his campaign for city council, which he went on to win and where he served until 1972. That year, Paul was elected Middlesex County Commissioner.

1974 would turn out to be a landmark year for Paul and Niki: they gave birth to their first daughter, Ashley, and Paul would run (and win) his race for Congress.

In 1978 Paul launched his run for the US Senate. With another 1-year-old in tow, their second daughter Katina, Paul and Niki won yet another improbable race.

“Of his time in the Senate, I am most proud of two things Paul accomplished. One was of course the Alaska Land Act, but the other was his work on the Chrysler bail out. He was against it at first, but he did what was right: he took a trip to Detroit and found out how devastated the people of that city would be if Chrysler failed. The trip opened his mind to an entirely different approach - safeguarding jobs while still looking out for the taxpayers. It is just so representative of how the two of us tried to approach public service and life in general.”

Paul thrived as a Senator, but in September of 1983 the Tsongases were forced to rethink all their aspirations and face their toughest challenge when Paul was diagnosed with cancer.

Paul chose not to seek reelection in order to focus on treatment for his illness and spend more time with his young family. Leaving Washington, Niki attended law school and held the family together while pushing Paul to fight the disease. He wrote at the time, “Niki could be a tough battler in ways that her gentleness did not suggest.”

After a bone marrow transplant, Paul beat back the cancer. Five years later, in 1991, filled with new vigor, audacity, and inspiration, he announced his candidacy for President of the United States. Niki once again found herself back in those small gatherings in New Hampshire as she helped her husband run an inspired campaign that many observers say defined the national debate that year. Paul won primaries and caucuses in New Hampshire and nine other states before eventually losing the Democratic nomination to Bill Clinton.

Sadly, in 1996, Paul faced a second well-known fight this time with complications from cancer treatments, which he lost in 1997.

Inspired by their life together, Niki has continued her dedication to public service, building on what she and Paul had accomplished. As a committed community leader in Lowell, actively serving on the Lowell Civic Stadium and Arena Commission which oversees the Tsongas Arena
and the LeLacheur Ballpark, the Lowell Plan and the Merrimack Repertory Theater, Niki continued to work for the revitalization of the city she has called home for 35 years.

Niki has a law degree from Boston University and started Lowell’s first all-female law practice. Prior to being elected to Congress, she was the Dean of External Affairs at Middlesex Community College-the largest community college in the Commonwealth.

In 2001, Niki was appointed by Congressman Marty Meehan to head up a foundation to provide educational funding for the children of the victims of the 9/11 tragedy. And she's been the member of numerous corporate and non-profit boards because of her strong belief that business must be constructively engaged in the fight for social and environmental justice.

But of all her accomplishments, Niki is most proud of her three daughters, who like their parents, have also met the call of public service. Ashley, 34, works for Oxfam America. Katina, 31, is Field Director for Obama's New Hampshire Campaign for Change.  Molly, 27, is the Project Director of a campaign that advocates for national investments in clean energy.