Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (born October 26, 1947) is a United States Senator (D-NY), and a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. She is married to and has a child with William Jefferson Clinton—the 42nd President of the United States—and Hillary was the First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001.
Hailing from Illinois, Hillary Rodham garnered national attention in 1969 for her remarks as the first student to deliver the commencement address at Wellesley College. She began a career as a lawyer after she graduated from Yale in 1973. After spending time a Congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas in 1974 and married Bill Clinton in 1975. She was later named the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979 and was listed as one of the “100 most influential lawyers in America” in both 1988 and 1991. She was the First Lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992 and was active in furthering the welfare of children as well as sitting on the board of Wal-Mart and several other corporate boards.
As First Lady of the United States, her major initiative, the Clinton health care plan, failed to gain approval by the U.S. Congress in 1994. In 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children's Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. She became the only First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater controversy in 1996. She was never charged with any wrongdoing in this or several other investigations during her husband's administration. Her marriage to Bill Clinton was the subject of an unprecedented amount of public discussion following the Monica Lewinsky scandal in 1998.
Clinton was elected as senator for New York State in 2000; marking the first time an American First Lady has run for public office. Hillary is also the first female senator to represent New York. She was re-elected by a wide margin in 2006. In the 2008 presidential nomination race, Clinton has succeeded in winning more primaries and delegates than any woman in U.S. history.
