Bill Clinton

Arkansas political career and education

Clinton attended the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington DC, where he became a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, worked for Senator J. William Fulbright and won a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to the University of Oxford in England. After Oxford, Clinton attended, and received a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from, Yale Law School, where he met his future wife, classmate Hillary Rodham.

Related Topics:
Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service - Georgetown University - Alpha Phi Omega - J. William Fulbright - Rhodes Scholarship - University of Oxford - Juris Doctor - Yale Law School - Hillary Rodham

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In 1974, his first year as a University of Arkansas law professor, Clinton ran for the House of Representatives. The incumbent, John Paul Hammerschmidt, defeated Clinton with 52% of the vote. The next year, 1975, he married Hillary Rodham. In 1976, Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas without opposition in the general election.

Related Topics:
1974 - University of Arkansas - House of Representatives - John Paul Hammerschmidt - 1975 - 1976 - Attorney General - Arkansas

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In 1978, Bill Clinton was first elected governor of the state of Arkansas. At the time, he was the youngest state governor in the country, and the youngest to be elected to a governorship since 1938. His first term was fraught with difficulties, including an unpopular motor vehicle tax and popular anger over the escape of Cuban prisoners (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chafee in 1980.

Related Topics:
1978 - Governor of the state of Arkansas - 1938 - Mariel boatlift - Fort Chafee - 1980

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In the 1980 election, Clinton was defeated in his bid for a second term by Republican challenger Frank D. White. As he once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history. However, in the next election, Clinton was elected governor again in 1982 for four consecutive terms until 1992, when he took the office of the President. In 1984, Clinton succeeded in amending the governor's term from two to four years.

Related Topics:
1980 - Republican - Frank D. White - 1982 - 1992 - 1984

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Clinton's business-friendly approach mollified conservative criticism during his terms as governor. However, several deals the Clintons made during this period led to the Whitewater investigation, which dogged his later presidential administration.

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