If you only casually follow politics, you probably don’t know much about Senator Patty Murray. She's rarely on TV or in the headlines. She’s not inclined to tear into her Republican colleagues or give floor speeches that go viral, like Senator Elizabeth Warren does. But Murray has become one of the most important dealmakers in the Democratic Party.

In just the past month, she has teamed up with Republican Senator Lamar Alexander to reform No Child Left Behind and worked with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn to pass a stalled human trafficking bill. She’s joined with Representative Paul Ryan to promote evidence-based policymaking, having developed a trusting relationship with him after the two reached a budget deal in 2013.

Yet Murray, 64, isn’t a red-state Democrat maligned by liberals. Currently the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, she champions progressive issues like paid sick leave and equal pay. This week, she’ll introduce legislation to raise the minimum wage to $12 per hour by 2020.

So how has she managed to forge these bipartisan agreements?

She's certainly accrued power over 22 years in the chamber, during which time she has run the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, chaired both the Senate Budget Committee and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, and ascended to the number four position in the Democratic caucus. And then there's her demeanor. Murray became Washington state's first female senator after a political opponent dubbed her "just a mom in tennis shoes" (she embraced the description), and has earned a reputation as a nice, no-nonsense colleague.