Tsongas, Niki, 1946-

Nicola Dickson "Niki" Sauvage Tsongas (born April 26, 1946) is an American lawyer, educator, and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a U.S. Representative from Massachusetts from 2007 to 2019. She held the seat formerly held by her husband, the late Paul Tsongas, for the district numbered as Massachusetts's 5th congressional district from 2007 to 2013 and as Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district from 2013 to 2019.

Born in Chico, California, she graduated in 1964 from Narimasu American High School in Japan while her father was stationed at Fuchu Air Force Base. She spent one year at Michigan State University, then transferred to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1968 with a Bachelor of Arts in religion. After college she moved to New York City, where she took a job as a social worker for the Department of Welfare. Tsongas earned her Juris Doctor from Boston University and started Lowell's first all-female law practice. She met her future husband, Paul Tsongas, in 1967. After marrying in 1969, Niki Tsongas moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, where Paul had begun serving as a deputy assistant attorney general and city councilman. Tsongas worked as a paralegal, high school teacher, and adoption caseworker. In 1974, she helped her husband win election to the U.S. House from a district that encompassed Lowell. In 1978 Paul won a seat in the U.S. Senate. The family moved to Washington, DC, where Niki Tsongas briefly ran a catering business with a friend.

After being diagnosed with lymphoma, Paul Tsongas left the Senate after one term. Niki Tsongas resumed her studies, earning her law degree from Boston University in 1988 before opening her own law firm. After his cancer went into remission, Paul returned to politics with a longshot candidacy for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. Tsongas left her law practice and returned to the campaign trail. Lagging behind the frontrunners, Paul suspended his presidential campaign in March, and the couple returned to legal work in Lowell. Paul Tsongas died of pneumonia on January 18, 1997. Despite speculation that Tsongas was going to start her own political career following Paul’s death, she declined and took a position as a dean at Middlesex Community College in Lowell. After Congressman Marty Meehan resigned from the House, Tsongas was elected to replace him in 2007. She was the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the House of Representatives in nearly 25 years.

During her tenure in Congress, Tsongas was an advocate for universal health care and supported a public health insurance option. She was a supporter of LGBT rights, she cosponsored the Respect for Marriage Act to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act; and voted for the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, which allows gays and lesbians to serve openly in the United States Armed Forces. Tsongas submitted numerous bills addressing public land use, including measures which carved out national parks in urban areas. In her final term in office, she attracted broad bipartisan support for her bill, the INTERDICT Act, which provided additional funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection services to upgrade screening technology to better intercept fentanyl and other opioids coming into the country.

In the summer of 2017, Tsongas announced her retirement after nearly six terms in the House.