Famous People Who Held Political Office a to z

Jacques Chirac is a French politician best known as the Prime Minister, Mayor of Paris and President of France during his career from 1974-2007.

Shirley Chisholm was the first black congresswoman, and the first African-American woman to make a bid for the U.S. Presidency.

Physicist Steven Chu was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 for his work on cooling atoms, and became the U.S. Secretary of Energy in 2009.

As prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill rallied the British people during WWII, and led his country from the brink of defeat to victory.

Appointed Attorney General by President Harry Truman, Tom C. Clark went on to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

Henry Clay was an American statesman. He promoted several major governmental compromises to balance the rights of free and slave states.

When Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2001, she became the only American first lady to hold national office. She became the 67th U.S. secretary of state in 2009, serving until 2013.

Michael Collins was a hero of the Irish struggle for independence, who directed guerrilla warfare during the intensification of the Anglo-Irish War.

Gary Condit served in the U.S. House of Representatives and is considered a conservative Democrat. He was inconclusively linked to the disappearance of federal intern Chandra Levy.

Constantine I was the first Christian Roman emperor. He ruled at the beginning of the 4th century and began the evolution of the empire into a Christian state.

Robin Cook was a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Livingston from 1983 until his death.

Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Coolidge was known for his quiet demeanor, which earned him the nickname "Silent Cal."

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter has insulted Jews, 9/11 widows and a variety of Democratic politicians, yet she continues to have a loyal fan base.

Davy Crockett was a frontiersman, legendary folk hero and three-time Congressman. He fought in the War of 1812 and died at the Alamo in the Texas Revolution.

Andrew Cuomo, the 56th governor of New York, is the son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo and brother of news anchor Chris Cuomo. He formerly served as New York's attorney general and U.S. secretary of HUD.

Aimé Césaire was a cofounder (with Léopold Sédar Senghor) of Negritude, an influential movement to restore the cultural identity of black Africans.

Kim Dae-jung was president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003. He arranged an historic summit with North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il.

F.W. de Klerk was president of South Africa from 1989 to 1994, during which time he worked with Nelson Mandela to successfully end the country's apartheid system of racial segregation.

Miguel de la Madrid was president of Mexico from 1982 to 1988. He was a political conservative and his administration was characterized by an economic crisis.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines was a military leader who worked with Toussaint l'Ouverture and gave the country of Haiti its name.

John Dickinson, an American statesman often referred to as the "Penman of the Revolution," wrote letters that helped turn opinion against the Townshend Acts created by the Parliament of Great Britain.

David Dinkins was the mayor of New York City from 1990 to 1994, and he was the first black mayor of the city.

Bob Dole is a former member of the U.S. House (1961-69) and U.S. Senate (1969-96) from Kansas. In 1996, he was the Republican Party's candidate for the presidency.

Stephen A. Douglas was a 19th century U.S. senator known for the Freeport Doctrine and who ran for president against Abraham Lincoln.

Frederick Douglass, a former slave and eminent human rights leader in the abolition movement, was the first black citizen to hold a high U.S. government rank.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, promoted Atoms for Peace at the United Nations General Assembly in order to ease Cold War tensions.

Anwar el-Sadat was the one-time president of Egypt (1970-1981) who shared the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for establishing peace agreements with Israel.

Charles W. Fairbanks was a U.S. attorney and senator who was the country’s 26th vice president under Theodore Roosevelt.

Geraldine A. Ferraro was a member of Congress and the first woman to run for the U.S. vice presidency on a major party platform.

Luis A. Ferré was a Puerto Rican industrialist who formed the New Progressive Party and was governor of Puerto Rico.

Millard Fillmore is best known for assuming the presidency after the death of Zachary Taylor, becoming the 13th U.S. president.

William Findley's long political career began after the Revolutionary War. He believed in limiting the power of government in order to protect people's rights.

Ari Fleischer is best known as the former White House Press Secretary serving President George W. Bush from 2001-2003.

Al Franken is the junior senator of Minnesota who first gained notice as a comedian and political satirist during his long tenure on Saturday Night Live.

Benjamin Franklin is best known as one of the Founding Fathers who drafted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

Melville Fuller was Chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1888 to 1910.

Indira Gandhi was India's third prime minister, serving from 1966 until 1984, when her life ended in assassination. She was the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister.

James Garfield is best known as the 20th president of the United States. He was assassinated after only a few months in office.

Merrick Garland is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals. He supervised the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing and Unibomber case.

Australian singer and political activist Peter Garrett is best known for his considerable contributions to both the environment and the music industry.

Robert Gates served as director of the CIA under George H.W. Bush before serving as secretary of defense under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Timothy Geithner is best known as the 75th U.S. Sercretary of the Treasury, under President Barack Obama. As the CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank, he was responsible for several crucial decisions during the 2008 financial crisis.

Park Geun-hye was sworn in as South Korea's first female president in 2013. She is the daughter of former South Korean President Park Chung-hee.

John Glenn was the first U.S. astronaut to orbit Earth, completing three orbits in 1962. He has also served as an Ohio senator.

Joseph Goebbels was minister of propaganda for the German Third Reich under Adolf Hitler. He presented a favorable image of the Nazi regime to the Germans.

Barry Goldwater was an American politician best known as a senator from Arizona and the Republican candidate for president in 1964.

Photographer and activist Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore, co-founded the Parents' Music Resource Center, and was Clinton’s mental health advisor.

Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Communist Party leader. He was arrested for speaking out against fascism and wrote his Prison Notebooks before dying in jail.

Fred Grandy played Gopher on the 1970s television show The Love Boat. He was also an Iowa congressman and the president and CEO of Goodwill Industries.

Mike Gravel is a former U.S. senator from Alaska, known for his efforts to end the draft during the Vietnam War and for releasing the Pentagon Papers.

Journalist Arthur Griffith was a founder of the Irish nationalist movement (Sinn Féin) and briefly served as President of the Irish Republic in 1922.

Alexander Hamilton, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and major author of the Federalist papers, was the United States' first secretary of the treasury.

Andrew Hamilton was a lawyer who defended John Peter Zenger in a case that marked the first victory for freedom of the press in the American colonies.

Hannibal Hamlin was a 19th century U.S. senator who became the country’s 15th vice president, serving under Abraham Lincoln.

John Hancock was an 18th century U.S. merchant who was president of the Continental Congress and the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Art Hanes was mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, between 1961 and 1963. He actively opposed racial integration.

William Henry Harrison was the ninth president of the United States (1841) and the first to die in office.

Václav Havel is a playwright who in 1989 became the president of Czechoslovakia, contining on after the country became the Czech Republic until 2003.

U.S. Secretary of State John Hay began his career as Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary, and was later known for promoting an "Open Door" policy in China.

Tom Hayden is a political activist and writer who served in the California State Assembly and State Senate. He is also the former husband of actress Jane Fonda.

Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th president of the United States and oversaw the end of the rebuilding efforts of the Reconstruction.

Republican, Jesse Helms was a United States Senator from North Carolina who served for five terms (1973-2003). He was known for his right-wing politics and opposition to civil rights legislation.