Hillary Clinton is the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.
- Clinton was raised as a Methodist, and her youth minister took her to see Martin Luther King Jr. speak when she was young. Her website says this “helped spark her lifelong passion for social justice.”
- Hillary Clinton met her future husband, Bill Clinton, in the law library at Yale. In a retelling of the story, Bill Clinton said he and Hillary exchanged eye contact from across the room. Finally, she crossed the entire library to speak to him. “Look, if you’re going to keep staring at me. And now I’m staring back. We at least oughta know each others name. I’m Hillary Rodham. Who are you?”
- In 1993, Clinton spearheaded the last national healthcare reform movement before the Affordable Care Act. The venture was ultimately unsuccessful.
- In Beijing, China on Sept. 5, 1995, Clinton gave a famous speech at the Fourth World Conference on Women. “If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely — and the right to be heard.” According to her website, many people in the U.S. government wanted her to pick a “less polarizing topic,” but she was “determined to speak out about human rights abuses.”
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- Clinton unsuccessfully ran for president in 2008 against then-Senator Barack Obama. In her concession speech she said, “Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it, 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.” This glass ceiling metaphor has to do with the tough time women have advancing in the workplace.
- Clinton has been a senator from the state of New York, as well as the Secretary of State under the Obama administration. She is the first former First Lady to do both, according to CNN.
- Clinton visited 112 counties as Secretary of State. During that time, Clinton brought Iran to the negotiating table, brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, and championed LGBT and women’s rights around the world. (Clinton Campaign Website)
- On June 6, 2016, Clinton became the first woman to win a major party nomination in America.
- Beyond women’s rights and her advocacy for families and children, Clinton calls herself a “progressive who likes to get things done.” Clinton advocates for gun control, and says she believes in climate change, wants to reform campaign finance, and introduce comprehensive immigration reform. Her issues are articulated on her website.