Maxine Waters

Maxine Moore Waters (née Carr; born August 15, 1938) is an American politician serving as the U.S. Representative for California's 43rd congressional district since 2013. She previously served as the U.S. Representative for California's 35th and 29th districts, first elected in 1990 and reelected since. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the most senior of the 12 black women currently serving in the United States Congress, and is a member and former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. Before becoming a member of Congress she served in the California Assembly, to which she was first elected in 1976. As an Assembly member, Waters advocated divestment from South Africa's apartheid regime. In Congress, she has been an outspoken opponent of the Iraq War and a critic of Republican Presidents George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. 2Early life and education Waters was born in 1938 in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of Remus Carr and Velma Lee (née Moore). The fifth out of thirteen children, Waters was raised by her single mother once her father left the family when Maxine was two. She graduated from Vashon High School in S