Hillary Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton (née Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer, and diplomat. She served as Secretary of State in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. Before that, she was a senator for New York from 2001 to 2009 and the First Lady of the United States when her husband, Bill Clinton, was the 42nd president of the United States.

In the 2016 United States presidential election, Clinton became the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major American political party as the Democratic Party nominee. She ran against Donald Trump, the Republican Party nominee. Although she won the popular vote, she lost the Electoral College.

Born and raised in Chicago, Rodham graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 and from Yale Law School in 1973. After working as a congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas and married Bill Clinton in 1975. She co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in 1977 and became the first woman partner at the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock two years later.

As the first lady of the United States, Clinton worked to support children and families. She helped create programs to assist children and families and supported laws to help young people in care. After her time as first lady, she was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, becoming the first woman to hold that position from New York.

Following her time in the Senate, Clinton became Secretary of State, where she focused on international issues, including helping to organize agreements to address global challenges. After her career in government, Clinton wrote books, supported progressive causes through Onward Together, and took on roles at universities, including Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast and a professor at Columbia University.

Early life and education

Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago, Illinois. She grew up in a family that moved to the nearby suburb of Park Ridge when she was three. Her father owned a small textile business, and her mother stayed at home. She had two younger brothers.

She was a good student in public schools and took part in activities like swimming and scouting. She went to Maine South High School, where she was active in student government and the school newspaper. She graduated near the top of her class in 1965.

In 1965, she went to Wellesley College and studied political science. She started as a leader of the Young Republicans but later changed her views and supported other politicians. She became involved in many school activities and was asked to speak at her graduation, where she received a long standing ovation.

After graduating, she went to Yale Law School. While there, she worked on projects helping children and studied how laws affect young people. She met and started dating another law student, Bill Clinton. She finished her law degree in 1973.

Marriage, family, legal career and first ladyship of Arkansas

See also: Hillary Clinton's tenures as First Lady of Arkansas, Legal career of Hillary Clinton, and Hillary Clinton's career in corporate governance

From the East Coast to Arkansas

During her studies, Hillary Rodham worked as a staff attorney for the Children's Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and as a consultant. In 1974, she helped with the investigation into the Watergate scandal in Washington, D.C.

Soon after, she decided to move to Arkansas to be with her boyfriend, Bill Clinton, who was teaching law and running for office. She joined the University of Arkansas School of Law as one of only two female faculty members.

Early Arkansas years

Hillary became the first director of a new legal aid clinic at the University of Arkansas School of Law. She also helped start the city’s first center to support people affected by violent crimes.

Hillary and Bill Clinton married in 1975. She chose to keep her own name, Hillary Rodham, to keep their professional lives separate and avoid conflicts of interest.

She worked for a law firm in Little Rock and helped start an organization to support children’s rights in Arkansas. She also served on a board that helped improve legal services for people in need.

Later Arkansas years

When Bill Clinton was elected governor, Hillary became the first lady of Arkansas. She worked on improving the state’s schools, fighting for better standards and testing for teachers. She also started a program to help parents prepare their young children for school.

Hillary continued working at her law firm and was involved in many organizations that supported children and families. She also served on the boards of several companies, where she pushed for better environmental practices.

Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign

When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, Hillary received national attention. She and Bill appeared together on television to address questions about Bill’s behavior, which helped his campaign. Hillary also talked about wanting to pursue her career instead of staying home, which some people criticized.

Bill said that by electing him, people would “get two for the price of one,” meaning Hillary would also play an important role. During the campaign, some critics compared Hillary to a Shakespeare character, saying she was too ambitious.

First Lady of the United States (1993–2001)

When Bill Clinton became president in January 1993, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first lady. She was the first to have a college degree and her own career before entering the White House. She also had an office in the West Wing of the White House, which was a first for a first lady. She helped choose important people for the new government during the time when the president was getting ready to start his job.

Hillary worked on many important issues during her time as first lady. She led a big effort to improve health care in the United States, but the plan faced a lot of challenges and was not passed. She also helped pass a law to support children who did not have health insurance and worked on laws to help families and protect women from violence. She traveled to many countries to speak about the rights of women and girls, and she started programs to help women get involved in their governments.

U.S. Senate (2001–2009)

Main article: US Senate career of Hillary Clinton

2000 U.S. Senate election

Main article: 2000 United States Senate election in New York

Hillary Clinton decided to run for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 after the long-time senator there decided to leave. She and her husband bought a home in New York to live there. She first thought she would be running against the mayor of New York City, but he dropped out of the race. Instead, she ran against another politician and won the election with most of the votes.

First term

As a senator, Hillary became the first wife of a U.S. president to also serve in the Senate. She worked with politicians from both sides and joined several important committees. After the terrible events of September 11, 2001, she helped get money for New York City to recover and improve safety. She also voted on important laws, including ones about taxes, the military, and health care.

2006 re-election campaign

Main article: 2006 United States Senate election in New York

Hillary ran for re-election in 2006 and won easily, getting two-thirds of the votes. She spent a lot of money on her campaign, which some people thought was too much since she didn’t have much competition.

Second term

In her second term, Hillary spoke out against sending more troops to Iraq in 2007. She also voted on important issues like supporting a plan to help the U.S. financial system during a big crisis in 2008. She worked on many topics to help people and the country during her time as a senator.

2008 presidential campaign

Hillary Clinton began thinking about running for president in 2003. In January 2007, she announced she was forming a group to explore a run for president in the 2008 election. No woman had ever been chosen as a main candidate by a big political party, and no First Lady had ever run for president before.

In early votes in 2008, Clinton came third in Iowa but surprised everyone by winning in New Hampshire. This was the first time a woman had won a big party's vote to choose delegates for the presidency. She won big states like California, New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts on what is called Super Tuesday, but another candidate, Barack Obama, won more places. Obama eventually got enough supporters to become the likely choice for the Democratic party. Clinton ended her campaign in June 2008 and supported Obama, who later won the presidency. Clinton was the first woman to run in every state's vote and got more votes and supporters than any woman before her.

Secretary of State (2009–2013)

See also: Foreign policy of the Obama administration and List of international trips made by Hillary Clinton as United States Secretary of State

Nomination and confirmation

In late 2008, President-elect Obama asked Hillary Clinton to be the next secretary of state. She was unsure at first but agreed to take the job in November. Obama announced her as his choice on December 1. Before she could start, some rules had to be made to make sure there were no problems because of her husband’s work.

The Senate approved her on January 21, 2009, with a vote of 94–2. She became the first former First Lady to be part of the United States Cabinet.

Tenure

As secretary of state, Clinton worked closely with President Obama. They made decisions together about foreign policy. Clinton talked to leaders around the world to fix problems and rebuild the United States’ reputation.

She wanted the State Department to focus more on helping people, especially women, around the world. She also worked on plans to keep peace in places like Afghanistan and Libya. Clinton visited many countries during her time in office, becoming the most traveled secretary of state ever.

Benghazi attack and subsequent hearings

On September 11, 2012, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked. The U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans died. After the attack, there were many questions about security and what happened.

Clinton said she was responsible for the security problems and promised to make changes. She talked to Congress about the attack and answered many questions. In the end, reports said there were mistakes made but no one was found to have done anything wrong on purpose.

Email controversy

While Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she used her own private email server for government work instead of a government email account. This caused a big discussion because some people thought it broke rules about keeping important information safe.

Later, it was found that some of the emails had secret information in them, even though Clinton said she never sent or received anything secret. The FBI looked into this and decided not to charge her with any crimes, saying she was very careful but maybe not as careful as she should have been. This story got a lot of attention, especially during her run for president in 2016.

Clinton Foundation, Hard Choices, and speeches

Main articles: Clinton Foundation and Hard Choices

After leaving her job, Hillary Clinton joined her family at the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. She helped start projects to support young children and worked to help girls around the world go to school.

In 2014, she wrote a book called Hard Choices about her time as a leader of the country. She also worked with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to learn more about how women and girls are doing around the world.

She also gave many speeches and earned money from them. In 2015, she left the foundation’s board when she started running for president. The foundation changed its rules about donations from other countries at that time.

2016 presidential campaign

Further information: 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidates, and 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries

In April 2015, Hillary Clinton announced she was running for president in the 2016 election. She had many supporters ready to help her, and her campaign focused on helping middle-class families, making preschool available to all children, and making college more affordable. At first, many people thought she would easily win the Democratic nomination, but she faced a strong challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Sanders talked about reducing the power of big companies and wealthy people in politics, which many people liked.

Clinton narrowly won the first contest in Iowa but lost the next one in New Hampshire to Sanders. She then won in Nevada and South Carolina, which helped steady her campaign. On March 1, called Super Tuesday, Clinton won many states, especially in the South, and built a lead in the number of supporters called delegates. By June 2016, she had enough delegates to be considered the likely nominee. In July, she became the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. Her running mate was Senator Tim Kaine.

Clinton lost the election to Donald Trump on November 8, 2016. Although she received more total votes than Trump, Trump won enough states to become president. Clinton spoke to her supporters the next day, urging them to give Trump a chance to lead.

Post-2016 election activity

Main article: Activities of Hillary Clinton subsequent to 2016

After losing the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton chose to stay out of the public eye for a while. She enjoyed walking in nature near her home in Chappaqua and was often seen by people who shared photos online. On January 20, 2017, she attended the ceremony when Donald Trump became president. She spoke about believing in the country's future during that time.

Clinton wrote a book called What Happened in 2017 about her election experience. She also wrote other books with her daughter Chelsea and another book with a friend named Louise Penny. Besides writing, Clinton started a group called Onward Together to support ideas that many people liked during her campaign. She also gave speeches, shared her thoughts on news articles, and worked on films and television shows. In 2020, she began a talking show called You and Me Both and later became a teacher at Columbia University in New York.

Political positions

Main article: Political positions of Hillary Clinton

People have tried to figure out where Hillary Clinton stood politically by looking at how she voted when she was a senator. Some groups gave her scores to show if she was more liberal or conservative. For example, one group said she was one of the most liberal senators while she was in office.

Clinton described herself as a "New Democrat," meaning she had mixed views that were sometimes liberal, sometimes conservative, and often in the middle. She talked about wanting economic policies that would help ordinary people and families.

Clinton believed in taking steps to fight climate change and supported equal pay for women. She also talked about helping families with young children and wanted to improve healthcare for older Americans.

On issues about marriages between people of the same sex, Clinton's views changed over time. She later supported the right for anyone to marry the person they loved.

Clinton thought that people who came to the country without papers should have a way to become citizens, but she also had concerns about safety at the borders.

For international issues, Clinton often supported strong actions by the United States. She believed in standing by allies like Israel and thought the country should play an active role in solving world problems. She later said she regretted some of her earlier votes for military actions.

Religious views

Hillary Clinton has always been a Methodist and has been part of United Methodist Church congregations throughout her life. She has talked about her Christian faith in public but not often when running for office. Professor Paul Kengor, who wrote a book about her spiritual life, believes her political views come from her faith. She often shares a saying linked to John Wesley: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can."

Cultural and political image

Main article: Public image of Hillary Clinton

Many books have been written about Hillary Clinton, with some showing support and others showing criticism. When she ran for office, some groups formed to oppose her. She has been shown in many ways in movies and TV, sometimes in a funny way for comedy.

Some people think she is a very well-known but hard-to-understand figure in American politics. When she became a leader of a big department, many people respected her, but opinions changed when she left that job. She has been inspired real-life stories on TV.

Awards and honors

Main article: List of awards and honors received by Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton has received several special awards and recognition over the years. In 2016, a bust of her was placed in the town of Sarandë in Albania. In 2019, she was chosen by Time magazine for one of its special covers celebrating important women. Later, in January 2025, she was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Joe Biden.

Books

See also: Bibliography of Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham Clinton has written many books over the years. Some of her popular titles include It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids' Letters to the First Pets, and An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History. She also wrote Living History, Hard Choices, and What Happened, sharing her experiences in public service.

Other books include Stronger Together: A Blueprint for America's Future with Tim Kaine, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience with her daughter Chelsea, and Grandma's Gardens also with Chelsea. She collaborated on State of Terror with Louise Penny, and more recently wrote Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty.

Ancestry