A former cattle rancher and state legislator, Sen. Deb Fischer is the only new Republican woman elected to the Senate this year.
A conservative with borderline tea party leanings, Senator Fischer believes in a limited federal government, gun rights, and absolutely no tax increases.
“I don't want to see added burdens on people who create jobs. I think that's the wrong way to go about this,” she said in an interview with PBS NewsHour, referring to the fiscal cliff negotiations.
Fischer said she defeated her Democratic opponent, former Sen. Bob Kerrey, by 16 percentage points because Nebraskans knew she would never vote to raise taxes.
The answer to the nation’s fiscal problems is spending cuts, she said. As a state senator, Fischer said she based her decisions on priorities that she believed were the state’s responsibility.
“And those were public education, public safety, public infrastructure, and taking care of those who truly can't care for themselves,” she said in the NewsHour interview. “We have to do that on the federal level as well, because government can't be everything to everyone.”
Despite her position on spending and taxes, Fischer says she will be able to work across the aisle in the Senate, pointing to her eight years in Nebraska’s unicameral legislature.
“My style is to develop relationships with people you work with” regardless of party, she told the National Journal.
Fischer entered politics in 1990 while raising three sons on a ranch in rural Valentine, Neb. Her first elected position was a seat on the Valentine Rural High School Board of Education, and later she became president of the Nebraska Association of School Boards.
While serving in the legislature from 2004 to 2012, Fischer took on leadership roles including the chairmanship of the Transportation and Telecommunications Committee. She championed legislation that reallocated a portion of the state’s sales tax revenue to road infrastructure.
An underdog in the Senate primary race, Fischer defeated two better-known Republicans: Attorney General Jon Bruning and State Treasurer Don Stenberg. She got a boost from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s endorsement and televsion ads sponsored by Joe Ricketts, the TD Ameritrade founder. She earned 41 percent of the vote compared with Mr. Brunings’s 36 percent and Mr. Stenberg’s 19 percent.
Fischer was selected to serve on five committees in the Senate: Armed Services; Commerce, Science, and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; Indian Affairs; and Small Business.
