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.

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