hillary clinton biography

Hillary Clinton

When Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, she became the first American first lady to win a public office seat. In 2016, she became the first woman in U.S. history to become the presidential nominee of a major political party.

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Education and early career, marriage to bill clinton, senate win and presidential run, u.s. secretary of state, health issues, benghazi testimony and resignation, mother-in-law and grandmother, bid for 2016 presidency, campaign issues, email scandal, trailblazing nominee, dnc email leak, historic moment: hillary clinton accepts democratic nomination for president, historic newspaper endorsements, election upset & concession, russia discovered behind email leaks, post-2016 campaign, books and documentary, who is hillary clinton.

Hillary Clinton was born in Chicago and went 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 run again for the U.S. presidency. In 2016, she became the first woman in U.S. history to become the presidential nominee of a major political party. After a polarizing campaign against GOP candidate Donald Trump , Clinton was defeated in the general election that November.

FULL NAME: Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton BORN: October 26, 1947 BIRTHPLACE: Chicago, Illinois SPOUSE: Bill Clinton (m. 1975) CHILDREN: Chelsea Clinton ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Scorpio

Hillary 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 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 in 1950) and Anthony (born in 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 public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. , and became a Democrat in 1968.

Hillary 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, Hillary became a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff, advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate Scandal.

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 was teaching as well.

Hillary married Bill on October 11, 1975, at their home in Fayetteville. Before he proposed marriage, Bill 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, Clinton worked on Jimmy Carter 's successful campaign for president her husband Clinton was elected attorney general. Bill 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.

Clinton 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.

During her husband's 1992 presidential campaign, Clinton 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, Hillary reportedly considered leaving her marriage. He was impeached, but the U.S. Senate failed to convict and he remained in office.

In 1999, Clinton decided she would seek the U.S. Senate seat from New York held by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who 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. When Clinton suspended her campaign, she made a speech to her supporters. "Although we were not able to shatter that highest and hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has 18 million cracks in it," she said, "and the light is shining through like never before, filling us all with the hope and the sure knowledge that the path will be a little easier next time, and we are going to keep working to make it so, today keep with me and stand for me, we still have so much to do together, we made history, and lets make some more."

Shortly after winning the U.S. presidential election, Obama nominated 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.

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 her 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 blood 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.

Clinton testified about the Benghazi attack on January 23, 2013. Speaking to members of the House Foreign Relations Committee, she defended her actions while taking full responsibility for the incident, which killed four American citizens. "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."

After taking office in 2009, she repeatedly stated that she was only interested in serving one term as secretary of state. She stepped down from her post on February 1, 2013.

In May 2014, the House Select Committee on Benghazi, chaired by Representative Trey Gowdy from South Carolina, was created to investigate the Benghazi attack. Clinton testified in front of the committee on October 22, 2015, in a nearly 11-hour hearing. The House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on June 28, 2016. The just over 800-page report found no new evidence of wrongdoing on her part, but was critical of "government agencies like the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department — and the officials who led them — for failing to grasp the acute security risks in the Libyan city, and especially for maintaining outposts in Benghazi that they could not protect," according to The New York Times .

The Democrats on the committee issued their own 339-page minority report that criticized Republicans for "one of the longest and most partisan congressional investigations in history" that took two years to complete and cost "$7 million in taxpayer funds."

"We have been hampered in our work by the ongoing Republican obsession with conspiracy theories that have no basis in reality," the minority report stated. "Rather than reject these conspiracy theories in the absence of evidence — or in the face of hard facts — Select Committee Republicans embraced them and turned them into a political crusade."

In 2010, the Clintons' daughter Chelsea married former Goldman Sachs investment banker and current hedge fund manager Marc Mezvinksy.

On September 26, 2014, Clinton became a first-time grandmother when daughter Chelsea gave birth to Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky. Chelsea gave birth to her second child, Aidan Clinton Mezvinsky, on June 18, 2016, and to son Jasper Clinton Mezvinsky on July 22, 2019.

After much speculation and assumptions over whether she would run for the U.S. presidency, Clinton's plans were made official in the spring of 2015. On April 12, her 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 was running for president.

On her campaign site, Clinton addressed a wide variety of issues: lowering student debt, criminal justice reform, campaign finance reform, improving the healthcare coverage and costs of the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare), and women's rights.

However, the candidate was also known for her changing stances on various hot button issues, including her evolving support of gay marriage and her souring on the Trans Pacific Partnership. In regard to the environment, Clinton had a plan to combat climate change but also faced questions from environmental activists for supporting fracking. She also supported the death penalty but claimed it should be implemented in exceptional cases.

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.

In May 2016, the State Department issued a statement regarding Clinton's ongoing email scandal. The department criticized her for not seeking permission to use a private email server and also stated it would not have approved it if she had. The 79-page report, along with a separate FBI investigation and other legal matters that involved her private email account, exacerbated Clinton's controversial political reputation and became fodder for Republican officials.

After a year-long FBI investigation of Clinton’s email practices while she was secretary of state, FBI Director James Comey announced on July 5, 2016, that the agency would not recommend criminal charges against Clinton. “Our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case,” Comey said at a news conference. He added: ”Although we did not find clear evidence that Secretary Clinton or her colleagues intended to violate laws governing the handling of the classified information, there is evidence that they were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information."

The following day Attorney General Loretta Lynch released a statement saying that she would accept the FBI’s recommendation and Clinton would not be charged in the case. “Late this afternoon, I met with FBI Director James Comey and career prosecutors and agents who conducted the investigation of Secretary Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email system during her time as Secretary of State,” Lynch wrote in the statement. “I received and accepted their unanimous recommendation that the thorough, year-long investigation be closed and that no charges be brought against any individuals within the scope of the investigation.”

Clinton’s email troubles resurfaced on October 28, 2016, when Comey revealed in a letter to Congress that while investigating disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner for texts he had sent to a 15-year-old girl, law enforcement officials had found emails that appeared “to be pertinent” to the closed investigation of Clinton’s use of a personal email server. The emails were reportedly sent by Huma Abedin, Weiner’s wife and Clinton’s top aide, to Clinton’s personal server, but the content of the emails was unknown.

The timing of Comey’s letter, just 11 days before the election, was unprecedented and critics called for the FBI to release more information. A bipartisan group of almost one hundred former federal prosecutors and Justice Department officials also signed a letter criticizing Comey. “We cannot recall a prior instance where a senior Justice Department official — Republican or Democrat — has, on the eve of a major election, issued a public statement where the mere disclosure of information may impact the election’s outcome, yet the official acknowledges the information to be examined may not be significant or new,” the letter stated.

On November 6, just two days before the election, Comey wrote another letter to Congress stating that Clinton should not face criminal charges after a review of the new emails. "Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July," Comey wrote in the letter.

On June 6, 2016, Clinton was hailed as the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party and the first woman in the United States' 240-year history "to top the presidential ticket of a major U.S. political party," according to the Associated Press. The assessment was based on Clinton winning the support of a combination of pledged delegates and superdelegates needed to win the nomination.

On June 7, the night of the final Super Tuesday primary, Clinton delivered a speech from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, acknowledging the historic achievement. It was eight years to the day since she had conceded her loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential race.

“Tonight’s victory is not about one person,” Clinton told a crowd of supporters. ”It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible. In our country, it started right here in New York, a place called Seneca Falls in 1848 where a small but determined group of women and men came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights and they set it forth in something called the Declaration of Sentiments and it was the first time in human history that that kind of declaration occurred. So we all owe so much to those who came before and tonight belongs to all of you.”

Clinton also acknowledged the impact of her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders ’ campaign: “I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for the extraordinary campaign he has run. He’s excited millions of voters, especially young people. And let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign, and the vigorous debate that we’ve had—about how to raise incomes, reduce inequality, increase upward mobility—have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America.”

She also addressed the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump , whom she called “temperamentally unfit to be President and Commander-in-Chief.” “He’s not just trying to build a wall between America and Mexico; he’s trying to wall off Americans from each other,” she said. “When he says, ‘Let’s make America great again,’ that is code for ‘Let’s take America backwards.’ Back to a time when opportunity and dignity were reserved for some, not all.”

Clinton personalized her rhetoric when she spoke about her mother Dorothy, “the biggest influence in her life,” who died in 2011: "This past Saturday would have been her 97th birthday. She was born on June 4th, 1919 and some of you may know the significance of that date. On the very day my mother was born in Chicago, Congress was passing the 19th amendment to the constitution. That amendment finally gave women the right to vote. And I really wish my mother could be here tonight ... I wish she could see her daughter become the Democratic party's nominee."

On July 12, 2016, just two weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Sanders endorsed Clinton at a rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "This campaign is not really about Hillary Clinton, or Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders, or any other candidate who sought the presidency," Sanders told the crowd. "This campaign is about the needs of the American people and addressing the very serious crises that we face ... And there is no doubt in my mind that, as we head into November, Hillary Clinton is far and away the best candidate to do that."

On July 22, 2016, Clinton announced via text message to her supporters that she had selected Tim Kaine, a Virginia senator and former Virginia governor and mayor, as her vice presidential running mate.

In July 2016, on the eve of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Wikileaks published over nineteen thousand DNC emails that revealed how officials seemingly favored Clinton over Sanders and sought to undermine his campaign.

The leak also showed the bitter tension between DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Sanders' campaign manager Jeff Weaver, the collusion between the DNC and the media, and the ways in which officials persuade big money donors.

As a result of the leak, Wasserman Schultz announced she would not be speaking at the convention and would step down as DNC chair.

During this time, an FBI investigation was underway to discover who was responsible for the leaks, although intelligence was already pointing to Russia being behind the cyberattacks.

The release of the emails by Wikileaks during the Democratic National Convention was a blow to what party officials had hoped would be a time to unify and energize their base of supporters. The scandal reinvigorated the ire of Sanders' supporters, many of whom felt the DNC had rigged the election for Clinton from the start. Nonetheless, even amid protests, Clinton received an array of support from political allies, delegates, celebrities and everyday citizens in a series of convention speeches, including Barack and Michelle Obama , actresses Meryl Streep and Elizabeth Banks and former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg .

After being introduced by daughter Chelsea, Clinton utilized the DNC's final night to officially accept her party's nomination for president, a historic achievement for women in the U.S., and then delineate aspects of her platform and national vision.

In September 2016, The Arizona Republic made a surprising announcement: it was endorsing a Democrat for the first time in its publication's history. The editorial board's decision to support Clinton was explained as follows:

“Since 'The Arizona Republic' began publication in 1890, we have never endorsed a Democrat over a Republican for president. Never. This reflects a deep philosophical appreciation for conservative ideals and Republican principles.

This year is different.

The 2016 Republican candidate is not conservative and he is not qualified.

That’s why, for the first time in our history, The Arizona Republic will support a Democrat for president.”

The paper's unprecedented announcement came on the heels of The Cincinnati Enquirer and The Dallas Morning News' similar decision to break with their longstanding Republican roots by endorsing Clinton over Trump.

As the returns rolled in, Clinton’s path to victory faded. Late into the evening, her defeat became clear when Trump earned the required majority of electoral votes. Breaking with political tradition, she declined to give a concession speech when the race was called but phoned Trump to concede.

The following afternoon Clinton delivered an emotional concession speech in which she congratulated Trump and said she "offered to work with him on behalf of our country."

"Our campaign was never about one person, or even one election," Clinton told her supporters. "It was about the country we love and building an America that is hopeful, inclusive, and big-hearted. We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America, and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power."

Clinton also addressed falling short of becoming the first female president of the United States: "I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will, and hopefully sooner than we might think right now."

Clinton concluded her speech quoting Biblical scripture. "You know, scripture tells us, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in good season we shall reap. My friends, let us have faith in each other, let us not grow weary and lose heart, for there are more seasons to come and there is more work to do."

Despite losing the electoral vote, Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of almost three million, garnering more votes than any other candidate in U.S. history besides Obama.

For months prior to the U.S. presidential election, well over a dozen U.S. intelligence agencies unilaterally concluded that Russia was behind the email hacks that were given to Wikileaks. In December 2016, the CIA, the FBI, and the NSA publicly concluded that Russian operatives, under orders from President Vladimir Putin , were behind the cyberattacks at the DNC and of Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's personal email account. The three agencies asserted that not only was Russia trying to undermine the U.S. presidential election but was also aiming to harm Clinton's campaign and to tip the scales for her Republican opponent.

Soon after these assessments came out, Clinton spoke about Russia's impact on her campaign at a private event. She blamed both Russia's email hacks, as well as FBI Director James Comey for issuing the letter concerning the investigation over her email server just days before the election.

On Putin, she said: "Vladimir Putin himself directed the covert cyberattacks against our electoral system, against our democracy, apparently because he has a personal beef against me," Clinton stated via The New York Times . (The "beef" she referred to went back to her speaking out against Putin's unfair parliamentary elections in 2011 when she was secretary of state.)

Clinton also gave light to the larger, more pressing issues at stake. “This is not just an attack on me and my campaign ... This is an attack against our country. We are well beyond normal political concerns here. This is about the integrity of our democracy and the security of our nation.”

After taking time to decompress from the campaign, Clinton resurfaced in May 2017 to co-found the political action organization Onward Together. In September, she published What Happened , an attempt to rationalize the many factors that contributed to her election defeat.

Clinton continued to levy criticism at Donald Trump on social media, usually earning a rebuke or a mocking reply from the president's camp. In January 2018, she drew a laugh at the Grammys for a segment in which she read from Fire and Fury , a book that revealed the behind-the-scenes chaos within the Trump campaign and White House.

Not all the news was positive; shortly before the Grammys, a report surfaced that a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign had been accused of repeatedly sexually harassing a subordinate. According to the report, Clinton was aware of the accusations but did not fire the adviser, instead choosing to dock his pay and send him to counseling.

The former first lady continued appearing at events, opining about the state of politics and her role in it. At Rutgers University in March, she was asked how she felt about some in the media telling her to "get off the public stage and shut up."

"I was really struck by how people said that to me — you know, mostly people in the press, for whatever reason — mostly, 'Go away, go away,'" she responded. "And I had one of the young people who works for me go back and do a bit of research. They never said that to any man who was not elected. I was kind of struck by that."

In July 2018, a New York Post columnist speculated that Clinton was planning to run for president again in 2020, based on the "urgency" of her emails to political supporters and the ongoing fundraising efforts of her super PACs. The rumor was enough to draw Fox News' Fox and Friends away from covering the rescue of a soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand to address the issue.

Clinton ultimately declined to seek the 2020 nomination, though she remained in the periphery of the campaigning, drawing the ire of Tulsi Gabbard in October 2019 for calling the Hawaii congresswoman the "favorite of the Russians" (Gabbard later filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit). Around that time, the subject of Clinton's emails resurfaced with the release of a State Department report that found "no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information."

Among the many books Clinton has penned, some of her more notable ones include: It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us (1996), Living History (2003 ) and Hard Choices (2014).

The former senator and secretary of state was the subject of a four-hour Hulu documentary, Hillary , which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

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• We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives. that is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realize her God-given potential.
• You show people what you're willing to fight for when you fight your friends.
• Everything that happens in America happens in New York.
• I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure.
• Faith is like stepping off a cliff and expecting one of two outcomes- you will either land on solid ground or you will be taught to fly.
• Don't confuse having a career with having a life. They are not the same thing.
• Home is a child's first and most important classroom.
• Too many women, in too many countries speak the same language, of silence.
• It took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, it may take another Clinton to clean up after the second one.
• Take criticism seriously, but not personally. If there is truth or merit in the criticism, try to learn from it. Otherwise, let it roll right off you.
• Every moment wasted looking back keeps us from moving forward.
• I would say that I personally was not focused on talking points, I was focused on keeping our people safe.
• Yes, there are still ceilings to break for women and men for all of us. But don't let anyone tell you that great things can't happen in America. Barriers can come down. Justice and equality can win. Our history has moved in that direction. Thanks to generations of Americans who refuse to give up or back down.
• We are stronger when we work with our allies and we're stronger when we respect each other, listen to each other and act with a sense of common purpose. We're stronger when every family and every community knows they're not on their own. Because we are in this together. It really does take a village to raise a child. And to build a stronger future for us all.
• [My mother] was the rock from the day I was born until she left us. She overcame a childhood marked by abandonment and mistreatment and somehow managed not to become bitter or broken. My mother believed that life is about serving others. And she taught me never to back down from a bully which it turns out was pretty good advice.
• To be great, we can't be small. We have to be as big as the values that define America. And we are a big hearted, fair minded country. We teach our children that is one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Not just for people who look a certain way or worship a certain way or love a certain way. For all, indivisible.
• This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what's right is worth it.
• To all the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.

The Biography.com staff is a team of people-obsessed and news-hungry editors with decades of collective experience. We have worked as daily newspaper reporters, major national magazine editors, and as editors-in-chief of regional media publications. Among our ranks are book authors and award-winning journalists. Our staff also works with freelance writers, researchers, and other contributors to produce the smart, compelling profiles and articles you see on our site. To meet the team, visit our About Us page: https://www.biography.com/about/a43602329/about-us

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Hillary Rodham Clinton

By: History.com Editors

Updated: February 25, 2021 | Original: November 9, 2009

Hillary Rodham Clinton (1947-) helped define the role of the modern political spouse and was one of the most accomplished first ladies in American history. A trained lawyer, she built a thriving career in the public and private sector, which she balanced with family life following her 1975 marriage to Bill Clinton. She was one of her husband’s closest advisors throughout his political career, which culminated in his election as president in 1992. As first lady, she focused on her lifelong interest in children’s issues and health care. The Clintons faced a series of personal and political crises while in the White House, during which the often-polarizing Hillary was subject to intense scrutiny and criticism. In 2000, she won a seat in the U.S. Senate, becoming the first first lady to win elected office. After a failed bid for the White House in 2008, Hilary Clinton was named U.S. Secretary of State by President Barack Obama in January 2009. In 2016, she ran again for president and made history by becoming the first woman to accept the nomination of a major political party. 

Hillary Clinton's Childhood and Early Life

Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947, in Chicago , Illinois , and raised in the nearby suburb of Park Ridge. The eldest child of Hugh Rodham, a fabric business owner, and Dorothy Howell, a homemaker, she joined the Girl Scouts and was named to the National Honor Society in high school.

Influenced by her father’s staunch Republican beliefs, Hillary canvassed Chicago neighborhoods for voter fraud following the 1960 presidential election, and volunteered for Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater’s 1964 campaign . She was also exposed to opposing viewpoints by a local minister named Don Jones, who brought his youth group to hear the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. deliver a speech at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall in 1962.

Actively engaged in student politics after enrolling at Wellesley College in 1965, Hillary became president of the Young Republicans Club as a freshman, and organized a student strike following King’s assassination in April 1968. She worked for both major political parties that year, but by the close of the tumultuous campaign cycle she was an avowed Democrat. Elected senior class president, she became the first student to deliver the Wellesley commencement address at Graduation Day 1969.

Legal Career and Meeting Bill 

Moving on to Yale Law School, Hillary became a protégé of children’s rights advocate Marian Wright Edelman. She worked for Edelman’s Washington Research Project (later the Children’s Defense Fund), and served on the board of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action. She also struck up what would become a lifelong relationship with fellow law student Bill Clinton .

After a post-graduate year at Yale Child Study Center, Hillary was assigned to the presidential impeachment inquiry staff during the Watergate investigations. She bypassed the chance to continue building her career in Washington, D.C. , instead joining Clinton as a faculty member of the University of Arkansas Law School. Following their October 1975 marriage and Clinton’s subsequent election to Arkansas Attorney General, she went to work for the Rose Law Firm in the state capital of Little Rock.

Hillary became the Rose Firm’s first female partner and a co-founder of the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. After Clinton was elected to the first of his five terms as Arkansas governor in 1978, she was named chair of the Rural Health Advisory Committee and the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee. She also joined the boards of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Defense Fund, TCBY and Wal-Mart, and was twice named to the National Law Journal’s list of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.

WATCH: Hillary Clinton: Fast Facts

Tenure as first lady and senator.

The first presidential wife with a post-graduate degree, Hillary took charge of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform at the start of Clinton’s administration. The commission was abandoned by September 1994, but Hillary was successful in later efforts to spur the formation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Adoption and Safe Families Act. Drawing more scrutiny than her immediate predecessors, she was subpoenaed to testify about the failed Whitewater investments from her days as Arkansas first lady, and endured the revelations of her husband’s affairs with White House intern Monica Lewinsky .

After succeeding retiring New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 2000, Hillary helped secure $21 billion for the redevelopment of the World Trade Center site in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks . She supported the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, but later became a harsh critic of the extended conflict in the region. A member of several Senate committees, including Armed Services and Environment and Public Works, she was easily reelected to her seat in 2006.

Presidential Bids and Secretary of State

Hillary announced her bid for the presidency in January 2007. While initially seen as a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, by the time voting began, she faced stiff competition from then-Illinois Senator Barack Obama . After a highly competitive primary, she suspended her campaign in June of 2008 and endorsed Obama. Shortly after Obama was elected president , he named Hillary as his secretary of state, making her the third female secretary of state in U.S. history. 

As secretary of state, Hillary advocated for the use of “smart power” and sought to make women’s and human rights a central theme of her tenure. She presented the administration’s public response to the Arab Spring uprisings, and successfully pushed for a troop surge in Afghanistan and military intervention in Libya. She also drew criticism in the aftermath of a deadly September 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, for which she was called to testify before the House Foreign Relations Committee.

After stepping down as secretary of state in 2013, speculation began building around another presidential run in the 2016 election. Hillary announced her bid in April 2015. She immediately entered the race with high name-recognition and a powerful fundraising apparatus. Hillary's main competition in the Democratic primary was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders , a progressive populist who took aim at some of Hillary's more centrist policies. In August of 2016, after defeating Sanders, Hillary became the first woman in U.S. history to accept the nomination of a major political party . She named Virginia Senator Tim Kaine as her vice presidential running mate. In November of that year, however, she lost the election to Donald J. Trump , despite earning nearly 3 million more votes than him. 

READ MORE:  Women's History Milestones: A Timeline

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Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton served as the First Lady of the United States to the 42nd President, Bill Clinton. She went on to become a U.S. Secretary of State and U.S. Senator from New York. In the 2008 election, Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination.

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton observed, “Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is . . . For me, that balance is family, work, and service.”

Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham’s first child, was born on October 26, 1947. Two brothers, Hugh and Tony, soon followed. Hillary’s childhood in Park Ridge, Illinois, was happy and disciplined. She loved sports and her church, and was a member of the National Honor Society, and a student leader. Her parents encouraged her to study hard and to pursue any career that interested her.

As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary mixed academic excellence with school government. Speaking at graduation, she said, “The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.”

In 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action, interned with children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and met Bill Clinton. The President often recalls how they met in the library when she strode up to him and said, “If you’re going to keep staring at me, I might as well introduce myself.” The two were soon inseparable–partners in moot court, political campaigns, and matters of the heart.

After graduation, Hillary advised the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. After completing those responsibilities, she “followed her heart to Arkansas,” where Bill had begun his political career.

They married in 1975. She joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School in 1975 and the Rose Law Firm in 1976. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation, and Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas. Their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

Hillary served as Arkansas’s First Lady for 12 years, balancing family, law, and public service. 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, Legal Services, and the Children’s Defense Fund.

As the nation’s First Lady, Hillary continued to balance public service with private life. Her active role began in 1993 when the President asked her to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. She continued to be a leading advocate for expanding health insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and raising public awareness of health issues. She wrote a weekly newspaper column entitled “Talking It Over,” which focused on her experiences as First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she has met around the world. Her 1996 book It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us was a best seller, and she received a Grammy Award for her recording of it.

As First Lady, her public involvement with many activities sometimes led to controversy. Undeterred by critics, Hillary won many admirers for her staunch support for women around the world and her commitment to children’s issues.

Hillary Clinton was elected United States Senator from New York on November 7, 2000. She is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York.

Hillary Clinton served as U.S. Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

The biographies of the First Ladies on WhiteHouse.gov are from “The First Ladies of the United States of America,” by Allida Black. Copyright 2009 by the White House Historical Association.

Learn more about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s spouse, William J. Clinton .

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Hillary Clinton

Hillary Rodham engaged in politics early. As a preteen in 1960, she canvassed for Richard Nixon in Chicago. When she was fourteen in 1962, she saw the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. speak in Chicago on a youth group trip. His speech inspired her to be a public servant. Her high school history teacher encouraged her early conservative ideals, and in 1964 she campaigned for Republican candidate Barry Goldwater in the presidential campaign.

Rodham attended Wellesley College , an all-female college near Boston, Massachusetts, from 1965 to 1969. She participated in student politics and served as president of the Young Republicans Club. Rodham changed her political outlook after witnessing Vietnam War protests, Civil Rights riots, the struggle of her black classmates and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. By the end of her undergraduate career, she identified as a Democrat. Rodham’s graduating class recognized her impressive leadership and elected her as Senior Class President for the 1968-1969 school year. Rodham’s classmates also chose her to be the first student to speak at a Wellesley graduation commencement ceremony. Rodham’s political speech received public praise and Life magazine featured her in an article. After graduating Wellesley, Rodham attended Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton and they started dating.

In the spring of 1974, Rodham joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee for the House of Representatives during the Watergate Investigation. After President Richard M. Nixon resigned in August of 1974, she joined the faculty at the University Of Arkansas Law School in Fayetteville, where Bill Clinton taught as well. In 1975, she founded the university’s legal aid clinic and worked with prison advocacy. Her clinic served over three hundred individuals the first year it opened, and the clinic continues its operations today.

As First Lady of Arkansas for five terms, from 1979 to 1981 and 1983 to 1992, Hillary Clinton remained a dedicated professional and served the people of Arkansas in both public and private capacities. Clinton became the first woman to serve on the Wal-Mart board of directors. She also served on TCBY and Lafarge boards. In 1988 and 1991, The National Law Journal named her one of the 100 Most Powerful Lawyers in America.

Clinton’s knowledge of early childhood development allowed her to be a powerful ally for Arkansan women and children. Starting in 1977, Clinton co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families , an organization that continues to fight for economic equality, early childhood education and children’s healthcare. In 1983, she chaired the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee and in 1985 introduced the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth, or HIPPY, a program aimed preparing preschool children for school. In 1986, she served on the board of the Children’s Defense Fund, and in 1988 served on the board of the Arkansas’ Children’s Hospital Legal Services.

Hillary Clinton

American politician and diplomat (born 1947) / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

Can you list the top facts and stats about Hillary Clinton?

Summarize this article for a 10 year old

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( née Rodham ; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a U.S. senator representing New York from 2001 to 2009, and as the first lady of the United States to former president Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party , she was the party's nominee in the 2016 presidential election , becoming the first woman to win a presidential nomination by a major U.S. political party and the first woman to win the popular vote for U.S. president.

Raised in Park Ridge, Illinois , Rodham graduated from Wellesley College in 1969 and from Yale Law School in 1973. After serving as a congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas and, in 1975, married Bill Clinton, whom she had met at Yale. In 1977, Clinton co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families . She was appointed the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978 and became the first woman partner at Little Rock's Rose Law Firm the following year. The National Law Journal twice listed her as one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America. Clinton was the first lady of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992. As the first lady of the U.S., Clinton advocated for healthcare reform. In 1994, her health care plan failed to gain approval from Congress. In 1997 and 1999, Clinton played a leading role in promoting the creation of the State Children's Health Insurance Program , the Adoption and Safe Families Act , and the Foster Care Independence Act . She also advocated for gender equality at the 1995 World Conference on Women . In 1998, Clinton's marital relationship came under public scrutiny during the Lewinsky scandal , which led her to issue a statement that reaffirmed her commitment to the marriage.

Clinton was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 , becoming the first female senator from New York and the first First Lady to simultaneously hold elected office. As a senator, she chaired the Senate Democratic Steering and Outreach Committee from 2003 to 2007. She advocated for medical benefits for September 11 first responders . [1] She supported the resolution authorizing the Iraq War in 2002, but opposed the surge of U.S. troops in 2007. Clinton ran for president in 2008 , but lost to Barack Obama in the Democratic primaries . After resigning from the Senate to become Obama's secretary of state in 2009, she established the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review . She responded to the Arab Spring by advocating the 2011 military intervention in Libya , but was harshly criticized by Republicans for the failure to prevent or adequately respond to the 2012 Benghazi attack . Clinton helped to organize a diplomatic isolation and a regime of international sanctions against Iran in an effort to force it to curtail its nuclear program , which eventually led to the multinational Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2015. The strategic pivot to Asia was a central aspect of her tenure, underscoring the strategic shift in U.S. foreign policy focus from the Middle East and Europe towards Asia. She had a key role in launching the United States Global Health Initiative , which aimed to increase U.S. investment in global public health, including combating HIV/AIDS , tuberculosis , and malaria . Her use of a private email server as secretary was the subject of intense scrutiny; while no charges were filed against Clinton, the email controversy was the single most covered topic during the 2016 presidential election.

Clinton made a second presidential run in 2016 , winning the Democratic nomination, but losing the general election to Republican opponent Donald Trump in the Electoral College , despite winning the popular vote. Following her loss, she wrote multiple books and launched Onward Together , a political action organization dedicated to fundraising for progressive political groups.

In 2011, Clinton was appointed the Honorary Founding Chair of the Institute for Women, Peace and Security at Georgetown University , and the awards named in her name has been awarded annually at the university. Since 2020, she has served as the chancellor of the Queen's University Belfast . In 2023, Clinton joined Columbia University as a Professor of Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs.

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Hillary Clinton

During the 1992 presidential campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton observed, “Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is....For me, that balance is family, work, and service.”

Hillary Diane Rodham, Dorothy and Hugh Rodham’s first child, was born in Chicago on October 26, 1947, and raised in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois. Life for the Rodhams was comfortable, centered in family, friends, school, and the Methodist church. Hillary’s parents expected her to study hard, and she was a student leader in high school. After a youth minister took her to hear Martin Luther King Jr. speak in Chicago, she began to have a wider view of the world.

As an undergraduate at Wellesley College, Hillary combined academic excellence with service in student government. Speaking at graduation, she told her classmates, “The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.” She enrolled in Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of the Yale Review of Law and Social Action , interned with children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and met William Jefferson Clinton.

After graduation, Hillary Rodham advised the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. Then she “followed her heart to Arkansas,” where Bill had begun his political career. They married on October 11, 1975. She joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School, and in 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation. Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas, and in 1980 their daughter, Chelsea, was born. For twelve years, as Arkansas’s first lady, Hillary balanced family, law, and public service. Then Bill was elected president.

As the nation’s first lady, Mrs. Clinton chaired the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. Never before had a first lady been so directly involved in public policy. She led the fight to pass the Children’s Health Insurance Program; worked to increase funding for research and treatment of cancer, AIDS, osteoporosis, and juvenile diabetes; chaired Save America’s Treasures; and supported gun control efforts. She wrote two best-selling books and won a Grammy award for her recording of It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us .

In 2000 Hillary was elected senator from New York, and her work in health, education, aging, and the environment gained her national reputation in her own right. In 2007 she ran for president. After a hard-fought primary she lost the Democratic nomination to Barack Obama but quickly supported his candidacy. When he was elected, he named her secretary of state. For four years Hillary traveled the world on behalf of U.S. interests.

In 2015 Hillary Clinton launched her second presidential campaign and in July 2016 became the first woman in American history to receive the presidential nomination of a major political party. That fall, she received more than 65 million votes but ultimately lost the Electoral Collect to Republican nominee Donald J. Trump.

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Hillary Clinton: A long journey

• Published 1 February 2013

Over the decades, Hillary Clinton has gone from student activist to globetrotting stateswoman. On her last day as US secretary of state, has her journey ended or is there more to come?

She's been on the world stage since Bill Clinton became the "comeback kid" and she became first lady in 1992.

Americans have named her the most admired woman in the world 17 times in a Gallup poll.

After travelling almost a million miles around the globe, she leaves her job as secretary of state with close to 70% approval ratings - higher than any outgoing secretary of state measured since 1948, with the exception of Colin Powell.

President Barack Obama has described her as one of the country's finest secretaries of state.

Although many have always admired her, she has had many detractors and her approval ratings have occasionally plummeted over the course of her career.

Clinton, the first lady, was seen by her conservative opponents as uncompromising, confrontational and deeply polarising. They hated her and everything she stood for, and she hated them back, calling them a vast right-wing conspiracy.

"As first lady she was unapologetically political," says Jason Horowitz, a Washington Post reporter who covered Clinton's 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination.

She was the first wife of an American president since Eleanor Roosevelt who played a prominent role in policy-making. She had her own office in the West Wing, a degree and a career, and critics accused her of trying to be co-president. Her efforts at healthcare reform faced a groundswell of opposition and failed.

When she decided to run for president, "a lot of people thought she did not stand for what America was supposed to stand for", says Horowitz.

"But I don't think there was one underlying thing all those people felt about her. There are these empty vessels that people pour into. She's one of those people that people project on to."

Born Hillary Diane Rodham in Chicago, Illinois, in October 1947, she attended local schools before graduating from Wellesley College and Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton.

She moved to Arkansas in 1974, marrying Bill a year later, and was made assistant professor at University of Arkansas School of Law. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation.

During 12 years as Arkansas' First Lady, Mrs Clinton worked for the Children's Defense Fund and co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. The couple's daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980.

In October 1991, Bill Clinton announced his intention to run for president at a rally in Little Rock, Arkansas - applauded by Hillary, their daughter Chelsea and his brother Roger.

After her husband's election as president in 1992, Mrs Clinton led successful bipartisan efforts to improve the adoption and foster care systems, reduce teen pregnancy, and provide insurance-based healthcare to millions of children.

She had already stuck by Bill when his affair with Gennifer Flowers emerged in 1992. And the family again came under strain during his second term, when the president admitted an "improper relationship" with intern Monica Lewinsky.

In 2000, she made history as a first lady by getting elected as New York senator. She continued to campaign for more affordable healthcare and won re-election in 2006.

In 2008, Clinton announced she would try to make history again - bidding to become the first female US president. However, she would narrowly lose a hard-fought battle with her rival for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama.

President Obama declined to choose her as his running mate - instead opting for Joe Biden - but did select her as secretary of state. She became a key figure on the international stage.

Clinton also had a difficult relationship with the media during her White House years, which continued on the campaign trail. Horowitz recalls a particularly low time in 2008. Hoping to ease the tension, Clinton came into the press bus to pass around doughnuts. But no-one responded to her peace offering and the doughnuts were left untouched.

But the first lady-turned-senator also had legions of fans. Liberals loved her, women's rights advocates in the US and abroad saw her as a trailblazer. So by the time she began her own run at the presidency in 2008, she was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.

Her strategists still agonised over how to present her to the public. They decided to make her look tough.

"She was the first woman with a real clear shot at becoming president of the US and there was a feeling in her campaign by some of her advisers that she always had to project strength," says Horowitz.

Clinton's advisers didn't want her to seem overly motherly or warm. But in the end, the strategy worked against her. She often came across as too harsh and cold and, according to some, disingenuous.

She contrasted with the rising star of the race. With his life story, his oratorical skills and charisma, Senator Barack Obama fired up the crowds. The fight for the nomination, bruising and nasty, went on for months. Clinton's main charge was that Obama was not ready to be commander-in-chief. Obama said that Clinton's only foreign policy experience was sipping tea with world leaders.

Asked during a debate why she was having trouble getting voters to like her, while they seemed to like her rival, Clinton laughed and said that while she liked Obama, she didn't think she was that bad. Standing next to her, Obama retorted dryly: "You're likeable enough, Hillary." It was just one of the many moments that laid bare the tension between the candidates.

When Obama ultimately, and narrowly, won the nomination, the rivals made peace.

Clinton even campaigned for Obama, bringing the 18 million votes she had won in the primaries along with her. Clinton had done well not just with women but also working-class voters and the elderly. But President Obama surprised everybody - including Clinton - when he picked her as secretary of state.

Clinton needed some convincing but she eventually said yes. In public she always said she felt one couldn't say no to the president if he asked you to serve.

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Hillary Clinton speaks to the BBC's Kim Ghattas about her time as Secretary of State

She also wondered how she would have felt if she had won and he had rejected her request to serve. But was there any bitterness in private?

"Never. Never once. I think she's a professional," says Lissa Muscatine, a friend who has worked with her at the White House and at the state department.

"She's been in this business a long time, she's had ups and downs and I think she is one of these people who is forward thinking: 'OK, what's next? I'm going to start working on what's next because that's a positive thing I can do. I'm not going to dwell on the past.' Others might have crawled into bed and pulled the covers over them."

If this sounds unemotional, Muscatine says Clinton is simply very pragmatic, a trait that allowed her to work with people in the Senate who had sought to impeach her husband.

As a first lady, Clinton had travelled overseas extensively, becoming a world figure and building ties with presidents, prime ministers and monarchs. So in her first few weeks at the state department, foreign leaders flocked to Washington, eager to shake hands with America's new ambassador to the world.

"Madame Secretary, on a personal note, I hope you know the admiration and respect with which you are held in the United Kingdom," said David Miliband, the then British Foreign Secretary, as he met Clinton during her first week at work.

His words exemplified how many around the world saw Hillary Clinton. "For many years," Miliband continued, "you have not just been an ambassador of America - you've been an ambassador for America and everything good that it stands for in the world."

Four years on, Miliband still remembers Clinton's debut at an international event.

"I will never forget the first Nato meeting that she arrived at in Brussels. I'd arrived an hour before her and there were a few people in the entryway. Suddenly there were thousands of people craning to get a view of her and that's where my understanding that she was a rock star came through very, very strongly."

But when Obama picked Clinton for his team, he knew he was getting much more than a performer with star status.

"Now we all take for granted that it was a good idea," says Philippe Reines, one of Clinton's top aides. "But go back to 2008 and it was shocking to all - to her, to everybody but one person.

"President Obama chose her for lots of reasons, but also because he knew what he was inheriting as president. The previous eight years were not a golden age of diplomacy. He knew that she was the best person to restore America's standing."

There was indeed much restoring to be done. After the Bush years, with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with rendition and waterboarding, America's reputation around the world had taken a battering and its standing as the world's sole superpower was in doubt.

The Obama administration wanted to change the substance and tone of American foreign policy. So Clinton embarked on a new campaign, for the US itself. She wanted to reach out directly to people, in all the countries she visited, to repair her own country's image.

Day one at the state department

Easy to do with adoring crowds in Europe, but a much more daring move in places where the US is widely despised, such as Pakistan. Clinton had been there as first lady and returned in October 2009 as secretary of state.

"Going into the trip she said: 'I don't want to resign myself to giving up on trying to change people's minds,'" says Reines.

"We said: 'It's not going to be pretty.' And she said: 'I want you to load it up and I want you to make me a punching bag.' Because once you let people express their frustrations, they also realise it's an opportunity to express their desires and their own goals for their nation and how the United States plays a part in that."

I was on the trip as Clinton sat through endless media interviews, town hall gatherings with students and meetings with tribal leaders. The tone was acerbic and angry. I could see her staff shrinking in their chairs while their boss got pounded but remained calm, responding with warmth, empathy but also firmness. Even though no single trip or charm offensive can erase decades of distrust, it was obvious that by the time she left three days later, the media coverage had softened.

But better PR, of course, is not enough on its own, especially when the use of US drones in Pakistan - and the raid to kill Osama Bin Laden - pushed relations to the limit.

"Pakistan-US relations went through the worst time during Clinton's tenure as secretary of state," says Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar. "When you come out of the worst times, I must give her a lot of credit for the wisdom she showed."

When Pakistani soldiers were killed by mistake in a Nato strike in November 2011, the relationship broke down - Pakistan refused to help the US with anything until it got an apology. Clinton quietly pressed the White House. In the spring, Washington finally offered a carefully worded apology.

"If the US was a country that was not willing to say sorry for the loss of 24 lives, no matter what the circumstances, that's not the image the US wants and she completely understood that," says Khar. No-one could handle "the long-term repercussions of allowing ourselves to drift further away. She came to the job with a lot of history, a lot of understanding as first lady and senator."

With former UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband

Clinton also gets praise from Republicans, such as former presidential candidate and Senator John McCain, who came to respect her during their time in the US Senate together.

"I think she has established relationships with leaders of well over 100 nations, so she can pick up the phone at any time," he says. It's a rapport that helped defuse many crises, he adds.

One critic of the administration says Clinton's ability to press the flesh made her the perfect foil to the more aloof Obama.

"He doesn't seem to have enjoyed cuddling up to foreign leaders. Some presidents do and some don't. He doesn't seem to like it. He has therefore left the care and feeding of foreign leaders to her," says Elliot Abrams, who was deputy national security adviser during the Bush administration.

"Meeting after meeting, trip after trip, hour after hour she's done. Someone's got to do it because these personal relationships are important and that's been a great service to the administration and to the country."

Over four years, Clinton travelled close to a million air miles - that's almost 40 times around the globe.

Her predecessor Condoleezza Rice did reach the million-mile mark but Clinton visited more countries than any other secretary of state, trying to bring American diplomacy to places such as the Cook Islands, seemingly inconsequential but playing its own part in the US's Asia policy.

With Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi

Clinton's energy was endless on the road - she could plough through a dozen or more events during the day, barely stopping to eat, while her staff fell asleep in meetings or events. As a member of the press corps that travels around the world with Clinton, I found her energy frustrating as I tried to keep up, following her for 300,000 miles to 40 countries - and I'm roughly half her age.

But her goal as secretary of state was much more ambitious than making friends - she and Obama wanted to redefine the exercise of US power and leadership.

From day one on the job, Clinton spoke of the need to apply the concept of so-called smart power, using "the full range of tools at our disposal - diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal and cultural - picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation", as she put it.

Clinton made women's rights a priority, appointing a permanent ambassador for women's issues, and she focused on development issues such as global food security, climate change and entrepreneurship programmes. But she also broke down traditional barriers and mistrust between the state department and the Pentagon, working closely with Defence Secretary Bob Gates and his successor Leon Panetta. One of the many whirlwind trips with Clinton took us from Pakistan to Afghanistan, Vietnam and South Korea, where she visited the demilitarised zone along with the border with North Korea in the company of Gates for a display of soft and hard power.

Asia is one area where the smart power approach has paid off - a delicate balance between diplomacy, military ties with allies and support for reforms and reformers such as Burma's Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Clinton, a long-time advocate of human and women's rights and once a student activist, was excoriated at the start of her tenure for not focusing more on human rights in the relationship with China, but she rejected the criticism. In her view, the US couldn't talk only about human rights with its banker. The relationship had to be more comprehensive.

The test came when Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng sought refuge in the US embassy in Beijing in the spring of 2012. The diplomatic crisis erupted just as Clinton was heading to Beijing for strategic and economic cabinet-level talks. The talks continued uninterrupted while tense negotiations about Chen's fate took place. Clinton eventually negotiated his departure to the US.

"We wanted to manage the entire episode in a way that showed the pragmatism and maturity of the China-US relationship," says Jake Sullivan, Clinton's deputy chief of staff.

"How can we on the one hand make sure we are doing right by who we are, and on the other hand build a stronger partnership and relationship with an emerging power? But there were certainly some harrowing moments along the way."

But repositioning the US for the 21st Century is a work in progress, and events always overtake plans and strategies. In January 2011, years of pent-up anger and frustration erupted across North Africa and the Middle East. Clinton had just warned Arab leaders that the region was sinking in the sand, but she didn't expect months of revolution and war.

On 25 January, just as the revolution was getting under way, Clinton said that "our assessment is that the Egyptian government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people".

But within three weeks, President Hosni Mubarak was gone, after 30 years in power. Egypt's modern pharaoh turned out not to be so stable. To this day, Egypt's revolutionaries, as well as proponents of forceful US action in Washington, have not forgotten that statement.

"I think the administration was slow on Mubarak and she was slow to realise that [Syrian president] Bashar al-Assad was just a butcher," says Eliot Abrams, who believes Clinton has had no impact as secretary of state.

"I think in Libya we were slow and then we went in and then we pulled out some aircraft, leaving the French and the British there. So I don't think she's going to come out too well on that."

Her destinations range from Libya...

The uprising in Bahrain is another black spot on the administration's record in the Middle East, one of the situations where - unlike in the Chen Guangcheng affair - the US found it hard to balance its interests and values.

Bahrainis demonstrating against the monarchy also feel bitter about the lack of support they received from Washington as they faced a brutal crackdown by the authorities. Bahrain is home to the US 5th Fleet, and Washington sees the small kingdom as a part of its efforts to push back against Iran in the region - interests trumped values here.

In Syria, the US did call for Assad to step down in the summer of 2012, but months later, he is still in power and the violence is tearing the country apart. Critics say this is a time for the superpower to be more decisive and get more involved, even militarily.

"I think it's the president's decision and the national security adviser much more than it is Secretary Clinton's, and it's a shameful chapter in American history," says McCain.

"We have let 60,000 people now be slaughtered, raped, murdered and tortured. Arms flow in from Russia and Iran [to Assad] and we sit by and watch. It's shameful.

"I think she influences the president on a great variety of issues. On this issue there have been others such as his national security adviser [Tom] Donilon who have played a much greater role."

Occasionally one senses frustration at the state department with the White House's reluctance to get involved in Syria in any decisive way - first because 2012 was an election year and now because there are no good, clear options.

But Washington's allies in the region say US inaction is making things worse. The US may have over-learned the lessons from the Iraq war. President Obama is keen to wind down wars, not start new ones, and he has adopted a cautious foreign policy. But despite frustration, these allies still believe that multilateral diplomacy remains the tool of choice for this administration.

"Being the secretary of state of a global power sometimes seems to be easy because you are representing a global power, but it has its own difficulties," says Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"If you give an impression that you are imposing something on others - sometimes on your ally or others - it might be counterproductive. But what I observed and I admired in Secretary Clinton was acting together with other countries and using multilateralism as the instrument of resolving issues."

... to New Zealand on the opposite side of the globe

But for all the reaching out, does Clinton - does the US - have anything tangible to show for her four years as secretary of state?

Critics say the "reset" with Russia has malfunctioned while Iran is getting closer to a nuclear bomb. Clinton clearly decided not to risk her reputation trying to bang heads together in the thankless task of Middle East peacemaking. But Clinton and her aides say you need to look at the big picture.

"The single biggest thing she's leaving behind is having restored American leadership, America's capacity to sit at the centre of coalitions - of countries and other actors - that can solve the big problems of our time," says Jake Sullivan.

"I think that that is the kind of legacy that endures beyond a single agreement or a single diplomatic moment. It's about a much bigger enterprise that is American foreign policy."

Although the administration's critics say US power has waned under Obama, its allies argue that influence is measured differently in the 21st Century.

"I think that what Hillary Clinton's secretary of stateship has done is lay the foundations, set out the tramlines for a modern role for the world's superpower in a world where there are other veto powers," says Miliband, referring to rising powers such as Brazil and Turkey, who have or want more of a say in how the world is run.

"This is a different world order from the one her husband confronted in the 1990s."

While she pursued her campaign for America, Clinton's own image improved and her ratings soared.

As she let her hair down, shimmying on the dance floor in South Africa , swigging a beer in Cartagena or becoming the focus of an internet meme - a Tumblr imagining her text messages , external - she seemed to attain a status of cool that had always eluded her.

Texting again?

Clinton the stateswoman seemed more comfortable in her own skin than Clinton the presidential candidate, more mellow, and people like Jason Horowitz from the Washington Post say the world finally got to see the real Hillary.

Her friends disagree.

"I don't think she's changed at all except from becoming an older, wiser person and a more mature politician and public servant," says Lissa Muscatine. "I think she's appreciated now for what she's been all along. She has become more comfortable with her own public persona, she has less to prove."

For people like me, who did not follow Clinton closely before she became secretary of state, the truth seems to be somewhere in between. She came across as very guarded and careful during her first encounters with the state department press corps, but relaxed gradually as she emerged from the pressure of domestic politics and focused on world affairs, finding her feet in her new role and within the administration.

By the end of 2009, we were seeing her funny, mischievous side, as she told jokes or gossiped about the love lives of movie stars. During our travels, she was often surprisingly open (off the record) about conversations she'd had in her meetings with world leaders, briefing us on the plane as we travelled to our next destination.

During her years as secretary of state, Clinton also emerged fully from her husband's shadow, no longer Clinton number two, but Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The change in perception was perhaps best exemplified after Bill Clinton made a surprise appearance at the Golden Globe awards last month, and host Amy Poehler exclaimed: "Wow, what an exciting special guest. That was Hillary Clinton's husband."

The job of US ambassador to the world also transformed Hillary Clinton from politician to stateswoman. She remained above the political fray for four years, and it has paid off.

"She's done this incredible thing, moving from being the most divisive person in American politics to someone that Republicans like. That's an amazing feat," says Horowitz. But if she decides to return to politics, the partisan attacks would resume.

Clinton's last few months as secretary of state were overshadowed by tragedy and a bout of illness. In September, the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, with three other Americans, was killed in an attack against the US mission in Benghazi.

The episode became embroiled in the partisan politics of election season. When Clinton finally testified in front of Congress , in her last weeks as secretary of state, the criticism and the fawning was split along clear partisan lines.

Republican Senator Rand Paul said that if he had been president, he would have fired her because of the security failure. The session was a reminder of Clinton's strength - and passion for the fight - and she seemed to emerge from the grilling mostly unscathed.

A stomach virus, concussion and a blood clot recently just put her out of action for a month - a reminder of her age, and possible frailty, although Clinton says her doctors have assured her there will be no lingering consequences. Four years before the next election, everyone is already asking - will she run?

"In some ways I would like to see her run," says McCain. "She would be extremely formidable. If I had to wager today, I think it's very likely that she'll give it serious consideration and she will be urged to."

With John McCain at nomination hearings for her replacement, John Kerry

From across the pond, Miliband urges Clinton not to rush the decision. "If she decides to go for it she'd be fantastic and she'll get a huge amount of support."

Her friends are also hoping for another presidential run. "I really care about her so I want her to rest first, but I would not be unhappy if she ran," says Muscatine, who believes Bill Clinton wants her to run.

Clinton herself insists she is done with the high wire of politics, but she has not firmly closed the door on the idea.

She says her life has been serendipitous - she remains flexible and open to opportunities that present themselves to her and she doesn't shut the door to anything unless it's necessary. So it's likely that she simply has not made up her mind.

She will not have to announce a decision for at least two years, but she'll do nothing to undermine her chances in the meantime.

But first there will beaches and speeches, and Clinton's friends hope it'll be mostly beaches.

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Clinton reflects on time in office. Video, 00:06:45 Clinton reflects on time in office

• Published 30 January 2013

About Hillary

Hillary Rodham Clinton has spent five decades in public service as an advocate, attorney, First Lady, U.S. Senator, U.S. Secretary of State, and presidential candidate.

Hillary Rodham was born in Chicago, Illinois on October 26, 1947. After graduating from Wellesley College and Yale Law School, she began her life-long work on behalf of children and families by joining the Children’s Defense Fund. In 1974, she moved to Arkansas, where she married Bill Clinton and became a successful attorney while also raising their daughter, Chelsea. During her 12 years as First Lady of Arkansas, she was Chairwoman of the Arkansas Education Standards Committee, co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and served on the boards of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and the Children’s Defense Fund.

As First Lady of the United States, from 1993 to 2001, Hillary Clinton championed health care for all Americans and led successful bipartisan efforts to improve the adoption and foster care systems, reduce teen pregnancy, and create the Children’s Health Insurance Program. She traveled to more than 80 countries standing up for human rights, democracy, and civil society. Her speech in Beijing in 1995 – where she declared that “human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights” – inspired women worldwide and helped galvanize a global movement for women’s rights and opportunities.

In 2000, Clinton made history as the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate, and the first woman elected to statewide office in New York. As Senator, she worked across party lines to expand economic opportunity and access to quality, affordable health care. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, she secured funding to rebuild New York and provide health care for first responders who risked their lives working at Ground Zero. She also championed the cause of our nation’s military and fought for better health care and benefits for wounded service members, veterans, and members of the National Guard and Reserves. In 2006, Clinton was reelected to the Senate, winning 58 out of New York’s 62 counties.

In 2007, she began her first historic campaign for president, winning 18 million votes and becoming the first woman to ever win a presidential primary or caucus state. In the 2008 general election, she campaigned for Barack Obama and Joe Biden, and in December, she was nominated by President-elect Obama to be Secretary of State.

In her four years as America’s chief diplomat and the President’s principal foreign policy adviser, Clinton played a central role in restoring America’s standing in the world and strengthening its global leadership, visiting 112 countries over 4 years, restoring America’s standing in the world. Her “smart power” approach to foreign policy elevated American diplomacy and development and repositioned them for the 21st century – with new tools, technologies, and partners, including the private sector and civil society around the world. She led the effort to impose crippling sanctions on Iran, laying the foundation for a historic agreement to curb its nuclear program, and negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that prevented a new war in the Middle East. Across the world, she defended universal values and pushed the frontiers of human rights.

In 2016, Clinton made history again by becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. As the Democratic candidate for president, she campaigned on a vision of America that is “stronger together” and an agenda to make our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top. She won the national popular vote, earning the support of nearly 66 million Americans.

Since leaving civil service and electoral politics, Clinton has remained an active force for progress and human rights. In recent years, she has leant her decades of experience to nurturing the next generation of leaders. Clinton serves as the 11th and first female Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast, reflecting a long history with the region – as First Lady, Clinton advocated for the women activists who were instrumental in the peace agreement that ended the Troubles and she has maintained a deep connection to Belfast and Northern Ireland. In 2023, Clinton went back to the classroom when she joined Columbia University as a co-founder of the Institute of Global Politics and Professor of Practice at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). She teaches a course with Dean Keren Yarhi-Milo called Inside the Situation Room, which engages young scholars with insights from diverse academic fields and the direct experience of high level diplomats, journalists, and other experts.

Her commitment to the stories we tell ourselves about who we are as Americans and what kind of future we want for our children and our grandchildren extends to her work as an author, podcast host, and television and Broadway producer. Clinton is the author of ten best-selling books, including her groundbreaking book on children, It Takes A Village (1996); Dear Socks, Dear Buddy (1998); An Invitation to the White House (2000); her memoirs, Living History (2003), Hard Choices (2014), and What Happened (2017); a picture book edition of It Takes a Village (2017); The Book of Gutsy Women (2019) and Grandma’s Gardens (2020), in collaboration with Chelsea Clinton; and her political thriller, State of Terror (2021), with Louise Penny. Her podcast, You and Me Both , features candid, in-depth, and sometimes hilarious conversations with actors, activists, and other people who have unique perspectives on the challenges and joys of modern life. Clinton is the founder of HiddenLight Productions, a global studio dedicated to bringing the stories of inspiring individuals and movements to TV, film, and streaming. The studio’s projects include Gutsy , a television adaptation of The Book of Gutsy Women , in which Hillary and Chelsea Clinton interview remarkable women in all walks of life.

In 2024, Clinton produced her first Broadway show, SUFFS , a love letter to the complicated women who fought for the right to vote and for a future they would never see but knew was possible. The musical was nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and won two Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score.

She and President Clinton reside in New York. They have one daughter, Chelsea, and are the proud grandparents of Charlotte, Aidan, and Jasper.

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Hillary Clinton

In July of 2016, Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first woman in history to represent a major party in a United States presidential election. She is also the first woman to win the Iowa Presidential Caucus, the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate, and the first female senator from New York.

Hillary Diane Rodham was born in a suburb outside of Chicago, Illinois in 1947 to middle-class parents. They encouraged her to take education seriously, and she earned entrance to Massachusetts’ Wellesley College. Her parents were Republicans and Clinton served as president of Wellesley’s Republican club, but the social issues of the late 1960s led her to become a dedicated Democrat. When her classmates elected her as Wellesley’s first student speaker at graduation, she said to her peers: “The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible.”

In 1969, Clinton attended Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors for the  Yale Review of Law and Social Action . It was there that Clinton met her future husband, William “Bill” Clinton. After she graduated, Clinton turned down offers from lucrative law firms to work for the Children’s Defense Fund, as well as on the congressional committee that investigated the Watergate scandal.

Clinton then moved to the university town of Fayetteville, Arkansas, where she joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School. In 1975 she and Bill Clinton were married. The following year, Clinton joined the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock. The couple’s daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980. In 1988 and 1991, Clinton was named one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.

Clinton continued to practice law after Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas, while also serving as a very active first lady. She led the Arkansas Educational Standards Committee, which greatly improved schools, and promoted programs that benefit women.

In 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected president, Clinton became the first First Lady to hold a law degree. She continued her tradition of public service, most notably leading an attempt to reform the nation’s health care. However, the effort failed in the mid-1990s. Clinton continued to work on the edges of the issue, helping to establish the 1997 Children's Health Insurance Program.

Clinton constantly traveled during her time as First Lady. She often took her daughter along when she visited women in Africa and Asia, and in 1995, she was criticized for joining the American delegation to Beijing for the United Nation’s conference on women’s rights. This convocation had been held every five years since 1975, but no first lady had attended it.

Clinton ran in 2000 for the New York Senate seat being vacated by Daniel Monahan, who supported her. Many accused her of being a “carpetbagger” because she had never lived in New York, but voters chose her by a solid 55% majority. She served on four major Senate committees: Armed Services; Budget; Environment and Public Works; and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. New Yorkers gained confidence in her, and Clinton easily won her 2006 reelection.

On January 20, 2007, Clinton announced her candidacy for president and joined the historic 2008 race. Although Clinton received roughly 18 million votes, she lost in the Democratic Primary to Senator Barack Obama, who went on to win the presidency. Clinton served as secretary of state for the Obama administration from 2009-2013. During this time, Clinton focused on women and human rights.

On April 12, 2015, Clinton announced her second run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Vermont's Independent Senator, Bernie Sanders, mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge. In July of 2016, Clinton secured the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia and became the first woman in history to represent a major party in a U.S. presidential election. Though she won the popular vote 48.2% to 46.1%, she lost the presidential race to her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, in the Electoral College.

• Black, Allida. “Hillary Rodham Clinton.” The White House. Accessed May 2016.
• Clinton, Hillary Rodham. “Commencement Address to the Wellesley College Class of 1992 by Hillary Rodham Clinton ’69.” Wellesley College. Accessed May 2016.
• “Clinton, Hillary Rodham.” History, Arts & Archives United States House of Representatives. Accessed May 2016.
• “Biography: Hillary Rodham Clinton.” Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Accessed May 2016.
• “Hillary Clinton Fast Facts.” CNN. Accessed May 2016.
• “Hillary’s story” Hillary for America. Accessed May 2016.
• “First Lady Biography: Hillary Clinton.” National Frist Ladies’ Library and Historic Site. Accessed May 2016.
• PHOTO: US Department of State

MLA – Patrick, Jeanette. "Hillary Rodham Clinton." National Women's History Museum. National Women's History Museum, 2016. Date accessed. 

Chicago – Patrick, Jeanette. "Hillary Rodham Clinton." National Women's History Museum. 2016. www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/hillary-clinton. 

First but not the Last: Women: Women Who Ran for President, National Women's History Museum

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Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris: Inside Their Quietly Close Bond

Mrs. Clinton, who lost out on becoming the first female president, has been a behind-the-scenes ally for the woman now vying to do so.

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By Annie Karni and Katie Glueck

Annie Karni reported from Washington, and Katie Glueck from Chicago.

Hillary Clinton was on Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday, July 21, the day President Biden dropped out of the presidential race, when her phone rang. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had already received a call from the same number, so she knew who wanted to talk to her.

Vice President Kamala Harris was calling to tell her she was running for president and hoping to build support as quickly as possible. Mrs. Clinton didn’t hesitate: She told the vice president she was all in. The Clintons rushed out an endorsement well ahead of many other party leaders, including the Obamas.

As Democrats revolted against Mr. Biden’s re-election bid this summer, Mrs. Clinton wanted no role in pushing him out, according to people briefed on her thinking. But behind the scenes, she was also adamant that if the president chose to step aside, Ms. Harris should become the party’s nominee with no drawn out primary.

The two women, once on opposite sides during the contentious 2008 Democratic primary, have quietly bonded over the past several years, sharing dinners at Mrs. Clinton’s Washington home, discussing high-impact decisions like whom Ms. Harris should pick for her running mate, and connecting over the still-stubborn ways that women in high office can be underestimated.

On Monday night, Mrs. Clinton, who came achingly close to becoming the nation’s first female president, will pass the torch to a woman nearly two decades younger, in a moment that friends say comes with a mixture of bittersweetness and pride for Mrs. Clinton.

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CLINTON BIOGRAPHIES

William jefferson clinton.

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in Hope, Arkansas, three months after his father died in an automobile accident. In high school, he took the name of his step father, Roger Clinton of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Bill Clinton graduated from Georgetown University in 1968 and was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford. He received a law degree from Yale in 1973. After graduation, he returned to Arkansas and taught law at the University of Arkansas before entering politics. His 1974 campaign for Congress ended in defeat, but two years later he was elected Arkansas Attorney General.

In 1975, Bill Clinton married Hillary Rodham, whom he had met while a law student at Yale. Chelsea, their only child, was born in 1980.

Bill Clinton was elected governor of Arkansas in 1978, but lost a bid for reelection in 1980. He regained the governorship two years later and served until 1993. During his 12 years in office, Governor Clinton earned national recognition for his progressive programs, especially his efforts to improve the quality of public education.

After a tough primary campaign, Bill Clinton won his party’s nomination and went on to defeat Republican President George H. W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 presidential race. When President Clinton won reelection in 1996, he became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to win a second term.

Following the early failure of his health care reform initiative, President Clinton pursued a moderate but progressive domestic agenda. During his tenure, the welfare system was reformed, the sale of guns was restricted, environmental regulations were strengthened, and a massive federal budget deficit was turned into a surplus.

On the international scene, the Clinton Administration expanded international trade, intervened to end “ethnic cleansing” in Bosnia, launched peace and trade initiatives in Africa and the Middle East, and promoted a framework for peace aimed at ending the strife in Northern Ireland.

In 1998, his relationship with a White House intern resulted in the President’s impeachment by the House of Representatives. A trial in the Senate found the President not guilty of the charges brought against him. President Clinton apologized for his conduct and vowed to keep working as hard as he could for the American people. As a result, Bill Clinton left office with historically high approval ratings for the job he had done as the 42nd President of the United States.

In the years since leaving office, President Clinton has dedicated his time to leading the development of global initiatives through his Foundation. The staff and volunteers of the William J. Clinton Foundation focus on programs of community service, drug acquisition for HIV/AIDS treatment, and fighting childhood obesity in the United States. The Clinton Global Initiative garners the expertise of leaders from around the world in addressing global issues of health care, education, clean energy and environment, job training, and entrepreneurship in under-developed countries.

President Clinton has worked alongside former Presidents George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush, in disaster relief efforts for the tsunami in South Asia, Hurricane Katrina in the United States, and the earthquake in Haiti.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26, 1947, the first child of Dorothy and Hugh Rodham. Hillary and her brothers, Hugh and Tony, grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.

After graduating from Wellesley College in 1969, Hillary entered Yale Law School where she met Bill Clinton. In 1974, at the height of the Watergate scandal, Hillary worked on the staff assisting the House Judiciary Committee with its investigation of the Nixon administration. She later joined Bill Clinton in Arkansas, where he was about to embark on a remarkable political career.

Bill and Hillary were married in 1975. Hillary served on the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School before joining the Rose Law Firm in 1976. Bill and Hillary became parents with the birth of their daughter, Chelsea, in 1980. In the meantime, her husband was elected Attorney General and then governor of Arkansas. During her 12 years as First Lady of Arkansas, Hillary Clinton was a strong advocate for the welfare of children and higher educational standards. She sat on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital and the Children's Defense Fund.

When Hillary became the nation’s First Lady, she continued to play an active role. In 1993, she chaired the Task Force on Health Care Reform. Although her involvement in shaping public policies drew criticism, she remained a determined advocate for the rights and welfare of children and women throughout the world. In 1997, she co-created the Vital Voices Democracy Initiative with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright which continues to support women leaders as the Vital Voices Global Partnership.

In 2000, Hillary Clinton was elected Senator from the state of New York. She was the first First Lady to be elected to the United States Senate. Hillary won re-election as New York Senator in 2006. In 2007, Hillary began her campaign for President of the United States. When Barack Obama won the nomination, Hillary supported the Obama/Biden ticket, and they went on to win the presidency. She was nominated by President-elect Obama to the position of Secretary of State, and was sworn in as the 67th Secretary of State of the United States on January 21, 2009. During her four years as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton traveled the world visiting 112 countries to promote American foreign policy. 

In 2015, Hillary Clinton announced her second campaign for President of the United States. She ran with Virginia senator and former governor Tim Kaine as her Vice Presidential candidate. At the 2016 Democratic National Convention she became the first woman to accept a major party’s nomination for President. While Hillary won the popular vote of the 2016 election, she failed to win the Electoral College and conceded the race to President Donald J. Trump.

Since the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton has written several books and continues to be active in progressive causes. 

Chelsea Victoria Clinton

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on February 27, 1980, Chelsea earned her undergraduate degree at Stanford University, followed by master’s degrees from the University of Oxford and Columbia University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in International Relations from Oxford.  She is married to Marc Mezvinsky, and they have three children: Charlotte; Aidan; and Jasper.

At the age of two, she accompanied her parents during her father’s campaign for re-election as Governor of the state of Arkansas.  Chelsea grew up around the life of politics, whether it was in the Governor’s mansion in Little Rock or the White House in Washington, D.C.  She frequently campaigned with her father during his '96 campaign for re-election, and while her mother ran for Senate she assumed some responsibilities of the First Lady, including traveling abroad and meeting with dignitaries.

Chelsea currently sits on the board as Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation, teaches at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and has written several books for young readers.  

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Hillary Clinton: Facts & Related Content

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Did You Know?

• Clinton once harboured dreams of becoming an astronaut; while she was growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, she sent a letter to NASA asking how she could become an astronaut, and she received a response stating that the agency did not employ women as astronauts.
• In 1999 Clinton became the first first lady to win elective office, having defeated Republican Rick Lazi by a substantial margin to claim a U.S. Senate seat from New York.
• After Clinton graduated from Wellesley College, she took a job in a salmon cannery in Valdez, Alaska, where her role involved scooping out the insides of the salmon; Clinton said that she was fired for working too slowly.
• Clinton was the first student to ever give a commencement address at Wellesley College; her speech, delivered upon her class' graduation in 1969, was reprinted in Life magazine.

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Hillary Clinton to speak at DNC as Harris looks to make history as 1st female president

Some have drawn comparisons between Harris' campaign and Clinton's 2016 run.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak Monday on the first night of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where later this week Vice President Kamala Harris will formally accept the party's nomination for president.

Harris will be the second woman in history to do so following Clinton, whose monumental 2016 run made her the first woman to clinch a major party's nomination, though she went on to lose the general election to Donald Trump -- Clinton famously conceding she had failed to shatter the "hardest glass ceiling."

In her remarks, Clinton will draw on her own experience and speak on the stakes of this 2024 race.

"The story of my life and the history of our country is that progress is possible. But not guaranteed. We have to fight for it. And never, ever give up," Clinton will say, according to released excerpts of her speech. "There is always a choice. Do we push forward or pull back? Come together as 'We The People' or split into us versus them? That’s the choice we face in this election.”

Clinton endorsed Harris the same day President Joe Biden announced he was leaving the 2024 race and backing his vice president to take his place atop the ticket. In a joint statement with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, Clinton said she was "honored" to endorse Harris and would "do whatever we can to support her."

"We've lived through many ups and downs, but nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term … Now is the time to support Kamala Harris and fight with everything we've got to elect her. America's future depends on it," their statement read.

Comparisons of Clinton and Harris' campaigns have begun to emerge as Harris ramped up her operation in the weeks after Biden's decision to step aside.

Several Democrats told ABC News they are feeling buoyed by Harris' candidacy and how she's reenergized the party, but are worried about being overconfident against Trump after what transpired with Clinton eight years ago.

MORE: Democrats head into their convention feeling optimistic -- and terrified: ANALYSIS

Clinton, who first ran for president in 2008 but lost in the primary race to Barack Obama, was successful in 2016 in clinching the nomination after defeating independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.

A bitter, ugly general election contest ensued between Trump and Clinton. Trump took to calling Clinton "Crooked Hillary" and the "devil." Clinton called half of Trump's supporters a "basket of deplorables," which critics called a mistake that alienated some voters.

A Trump fundraising email sent out Monday hours ahead of Clinton's DNC remarks highlighted her past "deplorables" comment and claimed she was "about to unleash hell on MAGA."

Polls in 2016 had shown Clinton ahead leading up to Election Day, but when results came in they showed Trump leading a stunning upset by grabbing several key battleground states. Clinton conceded the next morning.

"I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but some day someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now," Clinton said in her concession speech.

Clinton later recounted her experiences in greater detail and what went wrong with her campaign in her 2017 memoir "What Happened." She wrote that she bore responsibility ultimately for the loss to Trump but described it being difficult to overcome stereotypes.

"A lot of people said they just didn't like me. I write that matter-of-factly, but believe me, it's devastating," Clinton wrote. "But I think there's another explanation for the skepticism I've faced in public life. I think it's partly because I'm a woman."

She also directed some blame at former FBI director James Comey for reopening the investigation into her private email server 11 days before the election.

After the 2016 election, Clinton maintained a relatively low profile until 2020 when she campaigned for Biden after his success in the Democratic primaries.

Clinton spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention, saying she wish Trump had been a "better president" and praised Biden's character and his choice of Harris to be his running mate. She said they were a team who could "pull our nation back from the brink and build back better."

More recently, she penned a New York Times op-ed offering Biden advice on how to debate Trump before the June CNN showdown. Clinton called Trump a bully who "stalked" her on the debate stage in 2016 and urged Biden to be "direct and forceful."

After Biden dropped out of the race, in large part because his poor debate performance ignited Democratic fears about his age, Clinton wrote another Times op-ed offering a full-throated endorsement of Harris.

Clinton said that Harris can defeat Trump but warned she will face similar prejudices.

"I know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to fight through the sexism and double standards of American politics. I've been called a witch, a 'nasty woman' and much worse. I was even burned in effigy," Clinton wrote.

Clinton added, "Ms. Harris will face unique additional challenges as the first Black and South Asian woman to be at the top of a major party's ticket. That's real, but we shouldn't be afraid. It is a trap to believe that progress is impossible."

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When does Hillary Clinton speak at the 2024 DNC? How to watch and stream

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will take the stage Monday night during the first night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Clinton is one of several notable speakers, including President Joe Biden , expected to address the convention on Monday, nearly eight years after her failed presidential run against former President Donald Trump .

After Biden dropped out of the race in July, Clinton and former President Bill Clinton were quick to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris to take over Biden's spot as the Democratic nominee. Bill Clinton is expected to deliver remarks on Wednesday before vice presidential nominee  Tim Walz , the governor of Minnesota, gives his speech.

Harris, the Democratic nominee , will close out the convention with her acceptance speech Thursday night.

Here's what to know about tuning into Clinton's speech at the DNC.

Democratic convention 2024 live updates: What to expect in Chicago – and how to watch

Sign-up for Your Vote: Text with the USA TODAY elections team

What time is Hillary Clinton's speech?

Clinton's speech will come on the first night of the DNC, on Monday, Aug. 19 following a welcome from Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. The DNC has not released the exact time for her speech, but it will likely come during the  main programming  portion of the evening, scheduled from 5:30-10 p.m. CT.

The DNC speaker schedule is subject to change and a full list of speakers will be released at a later time.

When is the 2024 DNC?

The  DNC is scheduled to run August 19-22  at the United Center in Chicago.

How to watch Hillary Clinton's speech

USA TODAY is providing live coverage of Clinton's speech, which is scheduled on opening night of the Democratic National Convention: Monday, Aug. 19.

USA TODAY will stream every day of the Democratic National Convention, which takes place Aug. 19-22 in Chicago. You can watch night one on the embedded video above or on USA TODAY's YouTube channel.

Contributing: Joey Garrison and Rachel Barber,USA TODAY

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‘on speed dial’: hillary clinton working closely with kamala harris to elect first female president.

CHICAGO — Former Democratic presidential nominee and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will speak Monday at the Democratic National Convention to make the case for electing the first female president.

Mrs. Clinton has a close relationship with Vice President Kamala Harris , Democratic Party officials said while suggesting the two speak constantly.

“She has been an incredible partner to Vice President Harris ,” DNC Chair Minyon Moore said. “They have a great friendship. You know, they’re on speed dial with each other.”

Mrs. Clinton will address the DNC crowd eight years after delegates nominated her to run as the first woman to lead a presidential ticket. She went on to win the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Donald Trump.

Mrs. Clinton will try to rally the country to elect the nation’s first Black female president. 

“She will probably talk a lot about what it means at this moment to have the second female, and a female of color, running, but what our responsibility is to that as well,” Ms. Moore said. “We are trying to change and shift the mindset of people to see a woman of color as commander in chief, and Hillary Clinton has served as secretary of state and as our first nominee. So, she has a world view on this.”

Monday’s DNC program will serve as the party’s send-off for President Biden, who withdrew from the race in July. He is the marquee speaker, and his address to the convention crowd is expected to follow tributes from party luminaries who will speak ahead of him.

“Joe Biden made it clear that he was running for president to restore the soul of our nation. And tonight, four years later, it’s worth our taking a few minutes to reflect on just how much progress Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made,” Sen. Chris Coons, Delaware Democrat, said.

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at [email protected] .

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