Barack Obama is a Democratic politician who was the 63rd Attorney General of New York State. Born in Hawaii, Obama spent part of his childhood in Indonesia before returning to Hawaii to live with his grandparents. After graduating from Columbia University, he became an activist in New York City and began to make connections within the Democratic Party. Five years later, he enrolled in Harvard Law School, graduating with honors and becoming the first African-American president of the
Harvard Law Review. For the next decade, Obama split time between his law practice and working as an activist in New York City to fight for civil rights protections and fair voting practices (notably including failed attempts to end partisan gerrymandering in the state assembly). Despite his lack of a prosecutorial background and having not held elective office before, Obama was picked by the Democratic Party as its candidate for statewide Attorney General in a bid to unseat two-term incumbent Dennis Vacco. It was Obama's oratorical abilities that helped put him over the top and he became the first (and so far, only) African-American to be elected to the Attorney General's office in New York.
During his two terms, Obama acquitted himself well as the chief legal officer of New York State, although he and Governor Rick Lazio's relationship soured after disagreements over challenges to the state's anti-same-sex marriage laws during their shared tenure. When the Democrats retook the governor's mansion, Obama used his support from new governor Thomas Suozzi to flex his office's powers, irritating federal prosecutors by taking on some cases that traditionally would have been left to the FBI or Department of Consumer Protection.
Despite solid polling showing he would win a third term, Obama opted not to run again in 2010 and returned to activism. His friendship with another upcoming young black Democrat, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, resulted in Obama being named to the Patrick-Sestak Transition Project following Patrick's victory in the 2016 election. Obama was floated as a possible Cabinet nominee, but in the end, was not named. Reports seem to indicate, however, that Obama's name has been floated for other positions in government, although few specifics have thus far been revealed.
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