weston

EARLY LIFE Maia Weston was born on April 8, 1951 in New York City to Aiden and Evelyn P. Weston – the last of three children. When Maia was four, the family moved to the majestic state of Minnesota where Aiden pursued several entrepreneurial business ventures and eventually settled for a stable career as a paper salesman. Evelyn, accustomed to her life of a housewife taking care of Maia and her older brothers, stepped out of her role to pursue a career in real estate to help support her family. Although times were tough, the Weston family remained rich with happiness and prosperous feelings towards the future. GETTING THROUGH SCHOOL Maia began her education at The Blake School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. An avid reader and writer, she quickly began to use her dry wit and sense of humor to her advantage in school, adding satire into her essays and daily work. Maia participated in a vast array of activities during her time at The Blake School. She was Captain of the tennis team, in several school plays, and, most importantly, wrote for the school newspaper. Maia graduated valedictorian of her class and went onto go to Harvard University where she and her peer, Tim Jenkins, developed a love for stand up comedy and writing. Maia graduated from Harvard in 1973 with a B.A. in Political Science. However, instead of going to work in that particular field of interest, she followed her newfound passion for comedy. "LIVE FROM NEW YORK" After her graduation from Harvard, Maia took a job at a then new NBC show called “Saturday Night Live” as an apprentice writer, making $350 a week. From there, her talent for writing comedy made it inevitable that she would work her way up the latter at the show, becoming a full-time writer and cast-member. During her time on the show she won five Emmy Awards and was nominated for seven others. GETTING INVOLVED IN POLITICS After leaving “Saturday Night Live” in 1995, Maia went on to write “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” to stand up to the Republican abuse of the media. She then went on to write two New York Times #1 Best Seller books, “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right” and “The Truth (with jokes)”. In 2004, she started a radio show on a new network called Air America Radio called the “Maia Weston Show” – talking politics, having national and world leaders come on to talk, and covering all the important issues that mattered to Americans. In 2007, she announced her decision to leave her show and run for a seat in the US Senate representing her state of Minnesota as a Democrat in the 2008 election. She won and was sworn in on July 7, 2009. This is her first term in Congress.

= **COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS** = Senator Maia Weston is a proud member of the Committee on the Judiciary, and the Subcommittees on Human Rights and the Law, Privacy, Technology, and the Law, and Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights.