She fought to save her mom’s life. Now Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen is running for Senate to fix the system that almost didn’t.
The Colorado congresswoman has spent her career fighting for mental health, addiction treatment, and working families. She’s also only the 13th voting member of Congress to give birth while serving.
Brittany Pettersen was six years old when her mother hurt her back and was prescribed opioids. What followed was three decades of addiction that took her mother through prescription pills, alcohol, and heroin, and had Brittany watching from childhood through adulthood as the healthcare system cycled her mom in and out of ERs without ever giving her access to real treatment. It cost the state over a million dollars in ICU bills. It nearly cost her mother her life.
Pettersen turned that experience into a career. She became the first in her family to graduate from high school and college, then went on to spend a decade in the Colorado state legislature passing some of the most significant addiction treatment legislation in the country, including expanding Medicaid to cover inpatient substance use disorder treatment. She also passed one of Colorado’s strongest equal pay laws, gun safety measures, and protections for reproductive healthcare access. In 2022, she was elected to represent Colorado’s 7th Congressional District in Congress, becoming the first woman to ever hold that seat.
Now she is running for the U.S. Senate. She is also a mom of two young boys, and she holds a distinction she wishes didn’t exist: she is only the 13th voting member in the history of Congress to give birth while serving. She thinks that number tells you everything you need to know about why families are still waiting for Congress to show up for them.
We asked her what it looks like to do all of this at once.
The quick stats:
- Location: Lakewood, CO
- Office she’s running for: U.S. Senate (Colorado)
- Kids: Two young boys
- First time running for Senate?: Yes (has served in Congress since 2023, and in the Colorado state legislature for a decade before that)
- Website
What does a typical campaign day look like for you — and where does your family fit into it?
Like all working moms, a typical day looks like managing a thousand things at a time, and no day looks the same. The day entails getting up early to drop off the kids at daycare and school and starting my day off with official duties as well as the things I need to do to run for office. It’s constantly trying to put together a thousand puzzle pieces. This is an around-the-clock job and even if I have care during the work hours, this job entails work beyond the typical 9-to-5, so my kids are often with me on the campaign trail and traveling across the district.
What’s something about running for office that you didn’t expect — and that you wish someone had warned you about?
I believe that our country would be a much better place if we had more people in Congress who understand the struggles that most Americans are facing, especially young parents. I am only the 13th voting member to ever give birth while serving. That number is not a coincidence. There are significant barriers to serving while being a mom to young kids. And while some might choose to walk away, I’m determined to change the institution that makes it nearly impossible for us to serve in the first place.
Has being a mother shaped how you think about the issues you’re running on? If so, how?
I served as a public servant long before being a mom, but it has reshaped the urgency with which I think about the issues facing our country. My kids ground me and remind me why we cannot stop fighting. From addressing the wealth gap to climate change, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
What has been the hardest sacrifice your family has made for this campaign — and how have you handled that as a parent?
Time is the most valuable thing that we have with our kids, and it’s the greatest sacrifice I make in this position — being away for days on end and missing milestones. But I try to be as present as possible for the time that I do have with them and ensure that they always know how much I love them.
What would you want your kids to take away from watching you do this?
I hope that they’re proud of the work that I do every day and that they’re understanding of why I couldn’t always be there. I hope to also show them what’s possible and inspire them to care about the world and people beyond just themselves. And I know that I am raising two boys who respect women, which couldn’t be more important at this time.
Brittany is endorsed by Vote Mama, an organization dedicated to breaking down the structural barriers that keep moms out of office — and building the kind of political power that actually reflects the realities of American family life. Learn more about her here.
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