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| Hillary Clinton |
Hillary
Clinton was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois, going on to earn
her law degree from Yale University. She married fellow law school graduate
Bill Clinton in 1975. She later served as first lady from 1993 to 2001, and
then as a U.S. senator from 2001 to 2009. In early 2007, Clinton announced her
plans to run for the presidency. During the 2008 Democratic primaries, she
conceded the nomination when it became apparent that Barack Obama held a
majority of the delegate vote. After winning the national election, Obama
appointed Clinton secretary of state. She was sworn in as part of his cabinet
in January 2009 and served until 2013. In the spring of 2015, she announced her
plans to again run for the U.S. presidency.
Background
Hillary
Diane Clinton was born Hillary Diane Rodham on October 26, 1947, in Chicago,
Illinois. She was raised in Park Ridge, Illinois, a picturesque suburb located
15 miles northwest of downtown Chicago.
Hillary
Rodham was the eldest daughter of Hugh Rodham, a prosperous fabric store owner,
and Dorothy Emma Howell Rodham; she has two younger brothers, Hugh Jr. (born
1950) and Anthony (born 1954).
As
a young woman, Hillary was active in young Republican groups and campaigned for
Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater in 1964. She was inspired to
work in some form of public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by the
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., and became a Democrat in 1968.
Education
and Early Career
Rodham
attended Wellesley College, where she was active in student politics and
elected senior class president before graduating in 1969. She then attended
Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton. Graduating with honors in 1973,
she went on to enroll at Yale Child Study Center, where she took courses on
children and medicine and completed one post-graduate year of study.
Hillary
worked at various jobs during her summers as a college student. In 1971, she
first came to Washington, D.C. to work on U.S. Senator Walter Mondale's
sub-committee on migrant workers. In the summer of 1972, she worked in the
western states for the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee George
McGovern.
In
the spring of 1974, Rodham became a member of the presidential impeachment
inquiry staff, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives
during the Watergate Scandal.
(Chief
Counsel Jerry Zeifman would later contend that he fired Clinton from the
committee for what he deemed as unethical professional behavior connected to
Nixon's due process. These allegations have been contradicted by other media
sources that deny Zeifman's authority over the young attorney at this time,
with no comment from Clinton herself.)
After
President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August, she became a faculty member of the
University of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville, where her Yale Law School
classmate and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well.
Marriage
to Bill Clinton
Hillary
Rodham married Bill Clinton on October 11, 1975, at their home in Fayetteville.
Before he proposed marriage, Clinton had secretly purchased a small house that
she had remarked that she liked. When he proposed marriage to her and she
accepted, he revealed that they owned the house. Their daughter, Chelsea
Victoria, was born on February 27, 1980.
In
1976, Hillary worked on Jimmy Carter's successful campaign for president while
husband Bill was elected attorney general. Bill Clinton was elected governor in
1978 at age 32, lost reelection in 1980, but came back to win in 1982, 1984,
1986 (when the term of office was expanded from two to four years) and 1990.
Hillary
joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock and, in 1977, was appointed to
part-time chairman of the Legal Services Corporation by President Carter. As
first lady of the state for a dozen years (1979-1981, 1983-1992), she chaired
the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates
for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's
Hospital, Arkansas Legal Services and the Children's Defense Fund. She also
served on the boards of TCBY and Wal-Mart.
In
1988 and 1991, The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 most powerful
lawyers in America.
On
September 26, 2014, Clinton became a first-time grandmother when daughter
Chelsea gave birth to Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky.
First
Lady
During
Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary emerged as a dynamic and
valued partner of her husband, and as president he named her to head the Task
Force on National Health Reform (1993). The controversial commission produced a
complicated plan which never came to the floor of either house. It was
abandoned in September 1994.
During
this period, she and her husband invested in the Whitewater real estate
project. The project's bank, Morgan Guaranty Savings and Loan, failed, costing
the federal government $73 million. Whitewater later became the subject of
congressional hearings and an independent counsel investigation.
In
1998, the White House was engulfed in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal. Though
she publicly supported her husband, Mrs. Clinton reportedly considered leaving
her marriage. He was impeached, but the U.S. Senate failed to convict and he
remained in office.
Senate
Win and Presidential Run
With
her husband limited to two terms in the White House, Mrs. Clinton decided she
would seek the U.S. Senate seat from New York held by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
He was retiring after four terms. Despite early problems and charges of
carpetbagging, Clinton beat popular Republican Rick Lazio by a surprisingly
wide margin: 55 percent to 43 percent. Clinton became the first wife of a
president to seek and win public office and the first woman to be elected to
the U.S. Senate from
New York. She easily won reelection in November 2006.
In
early 2007, Clinton announced her plans to strive for another first—to be the
first female president. During the 2008 Democratic primaries, Senator Clinton
conceded the nomination when it became apparent that nominee Barack Obama held
a majority of the delegate vote.
U.S.
Secretary of State
Shortly
after winning the U.S. presidential election, Obama nominated Hillary Clinton
as secretary of state. She accepted the nomination and was officially approved
as the 67th U.S. secretary of state by the Senate on January 21, 2009.
During
her term, Clinton used her position to make women's rights and human rights a
central talking point of U.S. initiatives. She became one of the most traveled
secretaries of state in American history, and promoted the use of social media
to convey the country's positions. She also led U.S. diplomatic efforts in
connection to the Arab Spring and military intervention in Libya.
The
State Department, under Clinton's leadership, came under investigation after a
deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, killed U.S.
ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others on September 11, 2012. An
independent panel issued a report about the Benghazi attack, which found
"systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies" at
the State Department.
Health
Issues
Clinton,
who said she took responsibility for security at the outpost in Benghazi, was
scheduled to testify about the attack before Congress in December 2012. She
canceled her scheduled testimony, however, citing a stomach virus and, later, a
concussion that she suffered after fainting (the cause of which was later
reported as dehydration). Some members of Congress questioned the timing of
Clinton's illnesses, including Representative Allen West, who stated that he
believed the secretary of state was suffering from "a case of Benghazi
flu" on the day she was scheduled to testify.
On
December 30, 2012, Clinton was hospitalized with a blod clot related to the
concussion that she had suffered earlier in the month. She was released from a
New York hospital on January 2, 2013, after receiving treatment, and soon
recovered and returned to work.
Benghazi
Testimony and Resignation
Clinton's
testimony on the Benghazi attack came on January 23, 2013. Speaking to members
of the House Foreign Relations Committee, she defended her actions while taking
full responsibility for the incident, and was moved to tears when discussing
the American citizens who were killed in Benghazi. "As I have said many
times since September 11, I take responsibility, and nobody is more committed
to getting this right," she told the House. She added, "I am
determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and
more secure."
Since
taking office in 2009, Clinton repeatedly stated over the years that she was
only interested in serving one term as secretary of state. She officially
stepped down from her post on February 1, 2013.
Bid
for 2016 Presidency
In
June 2014, Clinton released Hard Choices, a memoir published by Simon &
Schuster, which rose to number one on the New York Times Best Seller list. The
following year in early March 2015, Clinton faced controversy and criticism
when it was revealed that she had used her personal email address to handle
official governmental business during her time as secretary of state. In a news
conference held at the United Nations, speaking initially on gender equality
and the political situation in Iran, Clinton stated that she had utilized her
personal email for convenience as allowed by state department protocol. She
later turned over all governmental correspondence to the Obama administration
while deleting messages that could be construed as personal.
After
much speculation and assumptions over whether Clinton would run for the U.S.
presidency, her plans were made official in the spring of 2015. On April 12,
Clinton's campaign chairperson John D. Podesta announced via email that the
former secretary of state was entering the race to secure the Democratic
presidential nomination for the 2016 elections. This was immediately followed
by an online campaign clip, with Clinton herself announcing that she's running
for president at the end of the video. She is considered a front-runner and, if
successful, would be the first woman to earn the nomination for a major party's
presidential bid.
- www.biography.com -
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