Gina Marie Raimondo is an American politician, lawyer, and venture capitalist who has served as the 40th United States Secretary of Commerce since 2021.
51 Facts About Gina Raimondo
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In 2000, Gina Raimondo co-founded Point Judith Capital, Rhode Island's first venture capital firm.
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Gina Raimondo entered politics in 2010, when she successfully ran for the position of general treasurer of Rhode Island.
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Gina Marie Raimondo was born in 1971 in Smithfield, Rhode Island, where she later grew up.
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Gina Raimondo became unemployed at 56 when the Bulova company decamped operations to China, shuttering the factory in Providence.
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Gina Raimondo was a childhood friend of US Senator Jack Reed.
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Gina Raimondo was one of the first girls allowed to attend the Catholic school, where she graduated as valedictorian.
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Gina Raimondo played rugby at the Radcliffe Rugby Club, and joked that this experience "was good training for a career in politics".
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Gina Raimondo attended New College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where she received a Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in 2002 in sociology.
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Gina Raimondo's thesis was on single motherhood and supervised by Stephen Nickell and Anne H Gauthier while she was a postgraduate student of New College, Oxford.
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Gina Raimondo received her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1998.
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Gina Raimondo has stated that her experience working at housing and poverty clinics inspired her to attend law school.
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Later, Gina Raimondo acted as senior vice president for fund development at the Manhattan offices of Village Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and backed by Bain Capital and Highland Capital Groups.
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Gina Raimondo returned to Rhode Island in 2000 to co-found the state's first venture capital firm, Point Judith Capital.
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At Point Judith, Gina Raimondo served as a general partner covering health care investments; she retains some executive duties with the firm.
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Gina Raimondo's platform called for financial empowerment programs at senior centers and schools, and for protecting consumers from predatory lending and mortgages.
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In May 2011, Gina Raimondo released "Truth in Numbers", a report that advocated for benefit cuts as the solution to Rhode Island's pension problems, and she helped lead the effort to cut pensions, along with then-Speaker of the House Gordon Fox.
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Gina Raimondo's critics attributed the underperformance to a sharp increase in fees paid to hedge fund managers while her supporters argued investments in hedge funds stabilize investments during market downturns for more consistent returns over time.
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Gina Raimondo created the Ocean State Investment Pool, designed as a low-cost investment vehicle intended to help the state and municipalities better manage and improve the investment performance of their liquid assets, which are used for day-to-day operations including payroll and operating expenses.
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Gina Raimondo submitted letters to the Senate and House Corporations Committees in support of payday reform legislation.
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In 2014, Gina Raimondo ran for governor of Rhode Island, and won a contested Democratic primary against Providence mayor Angel Taveras and former Department of Education official Clay Pell.
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Gina Raimondo was elected to serve as the vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association for the 2018 election cycle.
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Gina Raimondo was elected as chair of the DGA in 2019.
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In 2018, Gina Raimondo ran for reelection, defeating former secretary of state Matt Brown in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee Fung in the general election.
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Gina Raimondo's reelection made her the first candidate to secure a majority of votes for that office since 2006.
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Gina Raimondo was the first female governor of Rhode Island, and was one of nine incumbent female governors in the United States at time of her resignation.
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Gina Raimondo raised the state minimum wage to $11.50, created a sick-leave entitlement, financed the largest infrastructure program in the state's history, and made community colleges tuition-free.
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Between assuming office and the end of 2019, Gina Raimondo consistently ranked towards the bottom of approval ratings for all governors in the United States.
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However, Gina Raimondo's approvals saw a significant rise during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Gina Raimondo Administration received several letters from the federal government in August and September 2016 warning that UHIP was not ready to be launched.
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In January 2020, State Senator Sam Bell said a Rhode Island Senate Fiscal Report on Gina Raimondo's budget proved that "a single UHIP update kicked 5,500 Rhode Islanders off their Medicaid" in November 2019 without due process and the decisions were based on a computer update.
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Gina Raimondo appointed Trista Piccola as her new DCYF director in January 2017.
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In early February 2020, Gina Raimondo appeared alongside former Republican New York City Mayor and Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Bloomberg at the Wexford Innovation Center in Providence to endorse his candidacy, a move she described as "an easy call".
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Gina Raimondo was named a national co-chair for the Bloomberg campaign.
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In May 2020, writer George Will wrote in favor of Gina Raimondo being chosen as Biden's running mate in the 2020 election.
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On January 7,2021, Biden announced he would nominate Gina Raimondo to serve as his Secretary of Commerce.
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Gina Raimondo was duly sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on March 3,2021.
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Gina Raimondo was the only Cabinet member not to attend Joe Biden's first State of the Union address on March 1,2022, since she was chosen as the designated survivor.
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In March 2021, Gina Raimondo issued subpoenas for multiple China-based telecommunications firms owing to concerns, arguing that "unrestricted use of untrusted ICTS poses a national security risk".
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Gina Raimondo has faced criticism from some progressives for her opposition to the European Commission's Digital Markets Act proposal.
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Gina Raimondo voiced concern in December 2021 that the DMA would unfairly impact US-based tech companies such as Google and Apple.
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Gina Raimondo received criticism from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who argued that her comments contradicted the Biden Administration's efforts "to protect consumers and workers from Big Tech monopolies".
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In March 2022, Warren accused Gina Raimondo "lobbying on behalf of Big Tech".
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Gina Raimondo has argued that the chip shortage presents a national and economic security threat to US interests.
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In March 2022, Gina Raimondo stated that Chinese companies attempting to sell semiconductor technology to Russia in violation of US sanctions would face repercussions.
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On December 1,2001, Gina Raimondo married Andrew Kind Moffit, in Providence.
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Gina Raimondo is a practicing Roman Catholic and was one of the first girls to graduate from the La Salle Academy, a Catholic school in Providence.
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Gina Raimondo is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Aspen Institute Rodel fellow.
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Gina Raimondo was awarded an honorary degree from Bryant University, in 2012; and has received awards from the northern Rhode Island chamber of commerce and the YWCA of northern Rhode Island.
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Gina Raimondo serves as vice chair of the board of directors of Crossroads Rhode Island, the state's largest homeless services organization.
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Gina Raimondo has served on the boards of La Salle Academy and Family Service of Rhode Island.