Editing Barbara Boxer (section)

{{short description|American politician (born 1940)}}
{{redirect|Barbara Levy|the AMA RUC chairperson|Barbara Levy, MD}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name             = Barbara Boxer
| image            = Barbara Boxer, Official Portrait, 112th Congress.jpg
| caption          = Official portrait, 2013
| jr/sr            = United States Senator
| state            = [[California]]
| term_start       = January 3, 1993
| term_end         = January 3, 2017
| predecessor      = [[Alan Cranston]]
| successor        = [[Kamala Harris]]
{{Collapsed infobox section begin|Senate positions|titlestyle=border: 1px dashed lightgrey;}}
{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office1          = Ranking Member of the [[Senate Environment Committee]]
| term_start1      = January 3, 2015
| term_end1        = January 3, 2017
| predecessor1     = [[David Vitter]]
| successor1       = [[Tom Carper]]
| office2          = Chair of the [[Senate Environment Committee]]
| term_start2      = January 3, 2007
| term_end2        = January 3, 2015
| predecessor2     = [[Jim Inhofe]]
| successor2       = Jim Inhofe
| office3          = Chair of the [[Senate Ethics Committee]]
| term_start3      = January 3, 2007
| term_end3        = January 3, 2015
| predecessor3     = [[George Voinovich]]
| successor3       = [[Johnny Isakson]]
}}
{{Collapsed infobox section end}}
| state4           = [[California]]
| district4        = {{ushr|CA|6|6th}}
| term_start4      = January 3, 1983
| term_end4        = January 3, 1993
| predecessor4     = [[Phillip Burton]]
| successor4       = [[Lynn Woolsey]]
| birth_name       = Barbara Sue Levy
| birth_date       = {{birth date and age|1940|11|11}}
| birth_place      = New York City, U.S.
| death_date       = 
| death_place      = 
| party            = [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| spouse           = {{marriage|Stewart Boxer|1962}}
| children         = 2
| education        = [[Brooklyn College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])
| module           = {{listen|pos=center|embed=yes|filename=Sen. Barbara Boxer Opens a Senate Environment Committee Hearing on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.ogg|title=Barbara Boxer's voice|type=speech|description=Boxer opens a [[United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works|Senate Environment Committee]] hearing on the environmental and economic impact of the [[Deepwater Horizon oil spill|''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill]]<br/>Recorded May 11, 2010}}
}}

'''Barbara Sue Boxer''' ([[née]] '''Levy'''; born November 11, 1940) is a retired American politician, lobbyist, and former reporter who served in the [[United States Senate]], representing [[California]] from 1993 to 2017. A member of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]], she served as the [[U.S. representative]] for [[California's 6th congressional district]] from 1983 until 1993.

Born in [[Brooklyn]], New York City, Boxer graduated from [[George W. Wingate High School]] and [[Brooklyn College]]. She worked as a stockbroker for several years before moving to California with her husband. During the 1970s, she worked as a journalist for the ''[[Pacific Sun (newspaper)|Pacific Sun]]'' and as an aide to U.S. Representative [[John L. Burton]]. She served on the [[Marin County]] Board of Supervisors for six years and became the board's first female president. With the slogan "Barbara Boxer Gives a Damn", she was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] in 1982, representing California's 6th district.

Boxer won [[1992 United States Senate election in California|the 1992 election]] for the U.S. Senate. Running for a third term [[2004 United States Senate election in California|in 2004]], she received 6.96 million votes, becoming the first person to ever get more than 6 million votes in a Senate election and set a record for the most votes in any U.S. Senate election in history, until her colleague [[Dianne Feinstein]], the senior senator from California, surpassed that number in her [[2012 United States Senate election in California|2012 re-election]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Hotakainen |first=Rob |title=California's Boxer faces toughest Senate race yet |url=http://www.kentucky.com/2010/10/04/1463554/californias-boxer-faces-toughest.html |work=McClatchy Newspapers |publisher=Lexington Herald-Leader |date=October 20, 2010 |access-date=April 2, 2011 |archive-date=December 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212074119/https://www.kentucky.com/2010/10/04/1463554/californias-boxer-faces-toughest.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Boxer and Feinstein were the first female pair of U.S. senators representing any state at the same time.<ref name="Jewish">{{cite web |title=Jewesses in politics represent! Jewish Women's Archive |url=https://jwa.org/blog/jewesses-in-politics-represent |publisher=Jwa.org |date=November 5, 2002 |access-date=April 27, 2018}}</ref><ref name="congress1">{{cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/member/dianne-feinstein/F000062 |title=Dianne Feinstein; Congress.gov; Library of Congress |publisher=Congress.gov |access-date=April 27, 2018}}</ref><ref name="congress2">{{cite web |title=Barbara Boxer; Congress.gov; Library of Congress |url=https://www.congress.gov/member/barbara-boxer/B000711 |publisher=Congress.gov |access-date=April 27, 2018}}</ref> Boxer was the ranking member of the [[Environment and Public Works Committee]] and the vice chair of the [[Select Committee on Ethics]]. She was also the Democratic [[Party whips of the United States Senate|chief deputy whip]]. Boxer is known for her liberal perspectives.

Boxer did not seek re-election in [[2016 United States Senate election in California|2016]].<ref>{{cite web |title=A MESSAGE FROM BARBARA ABOUT THE FUTURE |url=http://www.barbaraboxer.com/take-action/message-from-barbara |url-status=dead |access-date=January 8, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150108180234/http://www.barbaraboxer.com/take-action/message-from-barbara |archive-date=January 8, 2015 |df=mdy-all}}</ref> She was succeeded by then–[[California attorney general]] and future [[Vice President of the United States|vice president]] [[Kamala Harris]]. In January 2020, Boxer joined [[Washington, D.C.]]–based [[Lobbying|lobbying firm]] Mercury Public Affairs as co-chairwoman.<ref>{{cite news |last=Meyer |first=Theodoric |title=Barbara Boxer joins D.C. lobbying firm |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/07/barbara-boxer-joins-dc-lobbying-firm-095196 |work=Politico |date=January 7, 2020}}</ref> In January 2021, it was reported that Boxer was working as registered foreign agent for [[Hikvision]], a Chinese state-sponsored surveillance company implicated in human rights abuses.<ref name="Markay">{{cite web |last=Markay |first=Lachlan |title=Scoop: Biden inaugural returns cash from ex-senator-turned-foreign agent |url=https://www.axios.com/barbara-boxer-biden-inaugural-foreign-agent-6022f95b-e6bd-44cc-b43c-2b7d50ffaca1.html |website=Axios |date=January 12, 2021 |access-date=January 12, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> After initially defending her work for Hikvision, Boxer reversed course and deregistered as a foreign agent.<ref name="McFall">{{cite web |last=McFall |first=Caitlin |title=Barbara Boxer 'deregisters' as foreign agent for Chinese surveillance company that targeted Uyghurs |url=https://www.axios.com/barbara-boxer-biden-inaugural-foreign-agent-6022f95b-e6bd-44cc-b43c-2b7d50ffaca1.html |publisher=Fox News |date=January 12, 2021 |access-date=November 14, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref> In October 2021, Boxer and others led a high-profile mass exodus of employees from Mercury's California office to form their own public affairs and consulting company.<ref name="latimes.com">{{cite web |last1=Mehta |first1=Seema |last2=Mason |first2=Melanie |title=Former officials Nuñez, Boxer and Villaraigosa lead exodus from powerful lobbying firm |url=https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-10-07/former-elected-leaders-nunez-boxer-villaraigosa-mercury-public-affairs |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=October 7, 2021 |access-date=November 14, 2021 |language=en-US}}</ref>