Geraldine A. Ferraro

Geraldine Anne Ferraro August 26 1935 March 26 2011 was an American politician diplomat and attorney She served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985 and was the Democratic Partys nominee for vice president in the 1984 presidential election running alongside Walter Mondale this made her the first female vicepresidential nominee representing a major American political party She was also a journalist author and businesswoman Ferraro grew up in New York City and worked as a public school teacher before training as a lawyer She joined the Queens County District Attorneys Office in 1974 heading the new Special Victims Bureau that dealt with sex crimes child abuse and domestic violence In 1978 she was elected to the US House of Representatives where she rose rapidly in the party hierarchy while focusing on legislation to bring equity for women in the areas of wages pensions and retirement plans In 1984 former vice president and presidential candidate Walter Mondale seen as an underdog selected Ferraro to be his running mate in the upcoming election In doing so Ferraro also became the first widely recognized Italian American to be a majorparty national nominee The positive polling the MondaleFerraro ticket received when she joined soon faded as damaging questions arose about her and her businessman husbands finances and wealth and her congressional disclosure statements In the general election Mondale and Ferraro were defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H W Bush Ferraro twice ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York in 1992 and in 1998 both times starting as the frontrunner for her partys nomination before losing in the primary election She served as the Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1993 until 1996 during the presidential administration of Bill Clinton She also continued her career as a journalist author and businesswoman and served in the 2008 presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton Ferraro died in 2011 from multiple myeloma 12 years after being diagnosed Description above from the Wikipedia article Geraldine Ferraro licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia