Barack Hussein Obama is the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, and ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush. Obama was reelected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney , and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013.
