Wisconsin's 'Fab 14' State Senators
Age: N/A
Occupation: Wisconsin state senators
Previous TIME 100 appearances: 0
They've revolutionized the very concept of the filibuster. Presented with a state budget plan that limited the rights of public employees, 14 Democratic members of the Wisconsin state senate, recognizing that they were outgunned in the chamber, decided their best course of action was to pick up and leave the state with the aim of forcing a compromise. You can't have a vote if you don't have a quorum. When their 22-day adventure came to an end they returned to Madison, they became a flash point for both union rights and austerity in debt-ridden America. Derided as the "most shameful 14 people in the state of Wisconsin" by the Republican state senate majority leader, they also became folk heroes on the left. Pins were printed in their honor, and people even learned their lawmakers' names.