Jennifer Granholm DEMDemocrat

Jennifer Mulhern Granholm (born February 5, 1959) is a Canadian-American lawyer, educator, author, political commentator, and politician. Since 2021 she has served as the 16th United States secretary of energy. A member of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the 47th governor of Michigan from 2003 to 2011, and as the 51st attorney general of Michigan from 1999 to 2003, as the first woman to hold both offices. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Granholm moved to California at age four. She attended the University of California, Berkeley—graduating with her bachelor of arts in 1984—and earned a JD from Harvard Law School, where she was 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.