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On this day, Jennifer Granholm became the first woman to be elected governor of Michigan.
Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-born American politician, lawyer, educator, author, political commentator and member of the Democratic Party who served as the Attorney General of Michigan from 1999 to 2003 and as the Governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011. In January 2017, she became a CNN political contributor.
Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Granholm moved from Canada to California at age four. She graduated from San Carlos High School and briefly attempted an acting career, then held a variety of jobs before attending the University of California, Berkeley. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984 and then a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. She then clerked for Judge Damon Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, became an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1991 and in 1995 she was appointed to the Wayne County Corporation Counsel.
Granholm ran for Attorney General of Michigan in 1998 to succeed 37-year Democratic incumbent Frank J. Kelley. She defeated Republican John Smietanka, the 1994 nominee and former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan, by 52% to 48% and served from 1999 to 2003. She ran for Governor in 2002 to succeed Republican John Engler. She defeated Engler’s Lieutenant Governor Dick Posthumus by 51% to 47% and became Michigan’s first female governor on January 1, 2003. She was re-elected to a second term in 2006 against Republican businessman Dick DeVos by a large margin and served until January 1, 2011, when she was term-limited. As Governor, Granholm received praise for her focus on renewable energy and in leading the state’s automotive industry through the crisis of 2008–10.
She was a member of the presidential transition team for Barack Obama before he assumed office on January 20, 2009. After leaving public office, Granholm took a position at U.C. Berkeley and, with her husband Daniel Mulhern, co-authored A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Future, released in September 2011.[4] Later she became host of The War Room with Jennifer Granholm on Current TV. Additionally, Granholm was an active supporter of Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012 and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Source : Jennifer Granholm wikipedia entry