Tony Coelho was raised on a dairy farm in California’s Central Valley and spent almost 15 years as a staffer for the local Congressman, Representative B.F. “Bernie” Sisk. When Sisk announced his retirement in 1978, Coelho won election to replace him and served more than a decade in the House, where he chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, was the first elected Democratic Whip, and introduced the legislation that became the Americans with Disabilities Act.