Geraldine Ferraro: Biography, Facts and Career

Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, representing New York's 9th congressional district. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the party's vice presidential nominee in the 1984 presidential election, running alongside presidential nominee and former Vice President Walter Mondale; this made her the first female vice-presidential nominee representing a major American political party. Ferraro was also a journalist, author, and businesswoman. Born in Newburgh, New York, Ferraro grew up in New York City. She attended Marymount Manhattan College, where she met her future husband John Zaccaro, whom she married in 1960. After earning a Juris Doctor from the Fordham University, Ferraro worked as a public school teacher before training as a lawyer. She joined the Queens County District Attorney's 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 House of Representatives, and held this seat until 1985. During her tenure in the House, Ferraro rose rapidly in the Democratic 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 nominee Mondale, seen as an underdog, selected Ferraro as his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. In doing so, Ferraro also became the first widely recognized Italian American to be a major-party national nominee. The positive polling the Mondale–Ferraro ticket received when she joined soon faded, as damaging questions arose about her and her businessman husband Zaccaro's finances and wealth and her congressional disclosure statements. In the general election, Mondale and Ferraro were defeated in a landslide by Republican President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. After the 1984 election, Ferraro ran campaigns for a seat in the United States Senate from New York in 1992 and in 1998, both times starting as the front-runner for her party's nomination before losing in the primary election. During that time, she served as the Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1993 to 1996 under President 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 at the age of 75 in March 2011 from multiple myeloma, 12 years after being diagnosed.

Quick facts about Geraldine Ferraro

• Full name: Geraldine Ferraro
• Born: 1935-08-26
• Nationality: United States
• Known as: Author
• Wikidata ID: Q229141

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