Barack
Obama
Barack
Obama
Political
Biography
Barack
Obama Political Career
| Barack
Obama Family
Barack
Obama's Family
Barack
Obama Political Career/Business
Career/Connections
Party
Affiliation:
Democrat
1985-1988: Director of the
Developing Communities Project (DCP).
1991-2004: Taught at the
University of Chicago Law School
1992: Led Illinois's
Project Vote, which was a voter registration
campaign
1993-1996: Attorney at Chicago
law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill &
Galland
1995: Obama announced his
candidacy for the vacant 13th District (in Chicago)
Illinois State Senate seat. He won the Democratic
nomination for this seat unopposed.
1996: Elected to the Illinois
State Senate from the 13th district, defeating Harold
Washington Party candidate David Whitehead and
first-time Republican Party candidate Rosette
Caldwell Peyton. Obama won with 82% of the vote in this
heavily Democratic district.
1997-2004: Served as a State
Senator from the Illinois 13th District.
1998: Re-elected to the State
Senate, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah. Obama won
with 89% of the vote.
1999-2000: Obama ran for the
Democratic nomination for election to Illinois's 1st
congressional district. Obama was defeated by four-term
office-holder Bobby Rush. Obama got only 31% of the
vote.
2002: Obama spoke out at a
large Chicago anti-war rally in opposition to the
agreement between President Bush and Congress on the
joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War. Obama's
opposition to the Iraq
War would be a major point in
his later election to the Senate and to the
Presidency.
2002: Obama won re-election to
the Illinois State Senate unopposed.
2003-2004: Obama campaigned for
the open U.S. Senate seat from Illinois. He won a heavily
contested Democratic primay election with 52% of the
primary vote, and went on to defeat Republican Alan Keyes
by winning 70% of the vote. Keyes was a late entrant into
the race, being chosen by the Illinois Republican Party
after the hasty withdrawal of Congressman Jack Ryan after
embarassing details of his divorce from Star Trek:
Voyager actress Jeri Ryan became public.
2004: Barack Obama delivered
the Keynote Speech at the Democratic National Convention
in Boston, Mass. on July 27, 2004. This speech
electrified Democrats and other liberals and launched the
little-known Senate candidate to national
prominance.
2005-2008: Served as U.S.
Senator from Illinois
2007-2008: Candidate for the
U.S. Presidency. On February 10, 2007, Obama announced
his candidacy for President of the United States in front
of the Old State Capitol building in Springfield,
Illinois. He defeated several other Democrats in the
Democratic Caucuses and Primaries. His lengthy primary
battles and numerous debates with New York Senator
Hillary Clinton helped define him to a national
audience.
2008: In the November election,
Obama defeated Arizona Senator John McCain. Obama won 365
electoral votes to 173 for McCain, and Barack Obama won
52.9% of the popular vote to McCain's 45.7%. Barack Obama
became the first African-American President of the United
States.
2009-Present: President of the
United States
2012: Barack Obama was
re-nominated by the Democratic Party for the
presidency.
2012: On October 3, 2012, Obama
and his Republican challenger, Mitt
Romney, met for the first of
three presidential debates.
November 6, 2012--President
Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden win second terms in
the 2012 Presidential election.
President
Obama's 2012 Victory Speech in Chicago, November 6,
2012