Governor Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II ( born August 4, 1961) is the 41st and current Governor ofIllinois. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2006 Illinois Gubernatorial election.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2000.

Following a successful bid against the Democratic incumbent for his seat Obama became member of the United States House of Representatives in 2000. After four years in the House Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His Gubernatorial campaign began in February 2006, and after a close campaign in the 2006 Democratic Party Gubernatorial primaries against incumbent Governor Rod Blagojevich, he won his party's nomination. In the 2006 Gubernatorial election, he defeated Republican nominee Judy Baar Topinka, and was inaugurated asGovernor on January 29, 2007. Governor Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the IllinoisRecovery and Reinvestment Act of 2006 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In foreign policy, he ended the war in Iraq, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered US involvement in the 2011 Libya military intervention, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In April 2011, Obama declared his intention to seek re-election in the 2012 presidential election.