A look at Hillary Clinton’s journey in American politics
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton wears many hats and has many firsts to her credit. Her journey in the world of politics has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Born on October 26, 1947, Hillary was brought up in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Rodham. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 and got a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1973.
She served as a congressional legal counsel for a while and later shifted to Arkansas. There she married to future American President Bill Clinton in 1975, whom she had met at Yale.
The passionate lawyer co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families in the year 1977. She held the position of the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978 and became the first female partner at Little Rock’s Rose Law Firm next year.
Clinton was honored as the first lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992 after Bill Clinton came to power as the President of America. During her time as the First Lady of the United States, Clinton stood for healthcare reform.
In 1994, a key initiative by her, the Clinton health care plan couldn’t get approval from Congress. In 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a major role in taking forward the formation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act.
Clinton is known for her strong opinions on gender equality at the 1995 UN conference on women.
Adding to her list of firsts, Clinton was elected as the first female senator from New York in 2000. She was elected again in 2006 and led the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee from 2003 to 2007.
In 2008, Clinton stood for the position of President but lost to Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries. Clinton held the position of U.S. secretary of state in the first term of the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013.
During her regime, Clinton formed the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review. Clinton volunteered to conduct diplomatic isolation and a regime of international sanctions against Iran in order to make it halt its nuclear program. Her effort eventually led to the finalization of the multinational JCPOA nuclear agreement in 2015.
Clinton went on to run for second presidential polls in 2016. After emerging victorious in the Democratic nomination, she stood in the general election with Virginia senator Tim Kaine as her vice presidential mate.
However, Clinton was defeated in the presidential election by Republican Donald Trump. She lost the Electoral College even after winning a majority of the popular vote. Hillary was the first woman to win the popular vote in an American presidential election. After her memorable defeat, she published her third memoir, What Happened, and launched Onward Together, a political action organization solely dedicated to fundraising for progressive political groups.
