The Tsongas family

A husband-and-wife pair from Massachusetts: a senator and presidential candidate, and a congresswoman.
Massachusetts · Senate · House
Combined career popular votes
2,273,759
Members on the ballot
2
Combined W–L
8–0
Years on the ballot
1974–2016

Paul Tsongas represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House and Senate and ran for the 1992 Democratic presidential nomination. Years after his death, his widow, Niki Tsongas, was elected to the U.S. House from Massachusetts, serving five terms of her own.

The Tsongas family members, ranked by career popular votes
MemberOfficesYearsCareer popular votesRecord
Niki TsongasDHouse2008–2016936,74150
Paul E. TsongasDSenate · House1974–19781,337,01830

How this is measured

Combined career popular votes are summed across the 2 family members we track, each counted once across every presidential, U.S. Senate, governor, and U.S. House election in our data. Family membership is hand-curated and verified against primary sources, never matched by surname alone, so unrelated namesakes are never folded in. A vote for a presidential ticket counts for both the president and the vice-presidential candidate, matching how each profile reports its own totals.

Compiled by PolitiFinder · published June 14, 2026 · sources: Data & sources.