The First 100 Days of a Tammy Baldwin Presidency: What the Record Suggests

Hero photo: Madison August 2022 037 (Wisconsin State Capitol) — File:Madison August 2022 037 (Wisconsin State Capitol).jpg, via Wikimedia Commons.

01 The scenario

Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin is in her third U.S. Senate term, first elected in 2012 and re-elected in 2018 and 2024. This article asks a hypothetical question: if she were ever sworn in as president, what would the first 100 days look like based on her documented record? This is a scenario analysis, not a prediction that the person will become president and not an endorsement or criticism of the person.

The premise rests on a long, documented legislative record with a distinct pattern: trade enforcement, drug pricing, veterans' health care, labor protections and dairy-country agriculture — much of it bipartisan by design. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a Baldwin White House would open with a worker-centered trade and health-cost agenda, and that most of it would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

02 The record: who Tammy Baldwin is

Baldwin is a Democrat and a lawyer by training, with a B.A. from Smith College and a law degree from the University of Wisconsin. She served in the Wisconsin state assembly from 1993 to 1999 and in the U.S. House from 1999 to 2013, then became the first openly gay U.S. Senator. She is in her third Senate term, having won re-election in 2018 and 2024.

Her committee portfolio carries unusual lever-weight: Appropriations (Ranking member of the Subcommittee on Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education), Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Ranking member of the Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness), and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. As a Labor-HHS appropriations card she shapes HHS and federal-worker funding fights directly. That portfolio — spending, science, health — is the evidence base for everything below.

03 Trade, tariffs and China

Baldwin's trade position is two-sided: she opposes across-the-board tariffs but champions aggressive trade-law enforcement against China. On Trump's April 2, 2025 “reciprocal” tariffs she said: “I agree that we need to address trade cheats like China, bring back Made in America manufacturing, and level the playing field for workers, but Donald Trump's reckless plan is not going to do that. These across-the-board tariffs are going to mean higher costs for Wisconsin families and start a trade war.” On March 31, 2025 she sent President Trump a letter outlining “a trade agenda that centers workers, stands up to trade cheats like China, and grows the American manufacturing sector,” advocating “a complete reimagining of relationship with [the] PRC.”

Her enforcement bill is the Fighting Trade Cheats Act, reintroduced February 10, 2026 with Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) and cosponsors Fetterman and Tillis — it would allow U.S. companies harmed by customs fraud and dumping to sue foreign producers directly. Her quote: “too often, foreign companies and countries, like China, rig the system, undermine our companies, and put Wisconsinites out of work.” Earlier in the 119th Congress she introduced bipartisan legislation to strengthen trade laws (February 24, 2025 release). For the scenario: reversing the executive tariff actions she criticized is the genuinely unilateral lever — initiating Section 301 and anti-dumping investigations runs through USTR — while the private right of action in the Fighting Trade Cheats Act requires Congress.

04 Health care and drug pricing

Baldwin is lead sponsor of the Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act (introduced February 24, 2025, bipartisan) to allow safe importation of lower-cost prescription drugs: “Big drug companies are ripping off Americans.” She touts her role passing the Inflation Reduction Act — the $35 insulin cap for Medicare Part D, and Medicare drug-price negotiation saving an estimated $6 billion per year on the first 10 drugs, effective 2026. She also launched a Senate investigation into inhaler prices; within two months, three of four manufacturers capped inhaler out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month.

Her office explicitly calls for statutory importation authority — and this would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action. But the administrative pathway exists too: FDA drug-importation rulemaking under existing statute can run through HHS, and inhaler-style price pressure runs through FTC, DOJ and FDA enforcement. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a President Baldwin would use the agencies on day one while sending the importation statute to Congress.

05 Veterans and military readiness

On August 21, 2025 Baldwin introduced the Healthcare for Our Troops Act — premium-free, zero-cost-sharing TRICARE-style coverage for roughly 130,000 uninsured National Guard and Reserve members (about 16% of the Selected Reserve). She frames it as “an investment in military readiness,” citing savings of over $162 million annually in contracted medical assessments. The bill is endorsed by the National Guard Association of the United States and Wisconsin Guard groups.

The lever question is genuine here: Guard and Reserve TRICARE benefits carry some Department of Defense discretion, but premium-free coverage of this scale likely needs statute. Evidence strength: moderate, because the exact cost-sharing mechanics of a DOD implementation are not documented in the sources consulted.

06 Labor

Baldwin's labor bill in the 119th Congress, with Rep. Gallego, would prevent companies from retaliating against striking workers by terminating their health care. The bill is statutory — this would require congressional approval rather than unilateral presidential action.

There is not enough public evidence to determine a broader 2025-26 labor agenda beyond this bill in the sources consulted; the research pass surfaced it as her principal documented labor action, and none should be padded beyond what the record shows.

07 Agriculture and dairy

Baldwin is lead sponsor of the DAIRY PRIDE Act (S. 2507, 119th Congress), banning the mislabeling of non-dairy products as “milk,” “yogurt,” or “cheese” — her office says it “fights back against non-dairy products that are mislabeled.” She also sponsored the Farmers First Act of 2025 (S. 2282, introduced July 15, 2025, with Sen. Ernst), reauthorizing the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network for farmer mental health, and introduced dairy-business legislation on February 5, 2025 supporting a program that has backed more than 250 dairy farmers and processors.

All three are statutory. A reasonable inference from these positions is that a President Baldwin would send a dairy-and-farm package to Congress early — and that her Appropriations card role would shape the funding fights around it.

08 What the record cannot tell us

The evidence runs out outside her committee portfolio. There is not enough public evidence to determine her 2025-26 position on immigration or AI policy specifically — her tech positions run through the Commerce Committee (privacy, science competitiveness), and her AI stance should be marked as unknown rather than inferred.

One verification caveat: bill numbers for the Fighting Trade Cheats Act, the Safe and Affordable Drugs from Canada Act, and the Baldwin-Gallego striking-workers bill in the 119th Congress were not individually verified on congress.gov (blocked by bot protection in the research pass); descriptions come from official senate.gov releases. Voting-record specifics beyond the named bills were not verified in this pass.

Disclaimer: this article is a scenario analysis based on the documented public record as of September 21, 2026. It is not a prediction that Tammy Baldwin will become president, nor an endorsement or criticism of her or her positions. Where evidence is incomplete, that is stated rather than filled in.