1. Gina Marie Raimondo is an American businesswoman, lawyer, politician, and venture capitalist who served as the 40th United States secretary of commerce from 2021 to 2025.
57 Facts About Gina Raimondo
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Gina Raimondo entered politics in 2010, when she was elected 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 is 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, from which she was graduated as valedictorian.
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Gina Raimondo played rugby at the Radcliffe Rugby Club, later joking that the experience "was good training for a career in politics".
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Gina Raimondo's thesis on single motherhood was 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 said 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 2001 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 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 chair of the DGA in 2019.
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In 2018, Gina Raimondo was reelected, 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 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 toward the bottom of approval ratings for US governors.
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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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The Gina Raimondo administration ignored the warnings, resulting in benefit delays, system downtime, and benefit loss caused in error.
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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, Washington Post 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 Secretary of Commerce.
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Gina Raimondo was 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 Biden's first State of the Union address on March 1,2022, since she was chosen as the designated survivor.
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Gina Raimondo's approach has drawn praise from centrists, with a Washington Post opinion article praising her as a "technocratic moderate in a moment when her party's loudest voices are woke, populist and a step or two to her left".
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In office, Gina Raimondo has been noted for her willingness to work with corporate executives, and was described by Axios as "Tech's Favorite Biden Official".
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In 2022, Gina Raimondo was rumored to be a potential candidate to succeed Janet Yellen as Secretary of the Treasury in the aftermath of that year's midterms.
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Gina Raimondo has been a co-chair of the Trade and Technology Council since its creation in 2021.
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Gina Raimondo has been criticized by some progressives for opposing the European Commission's Digital Markets Act proposal.
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In December 2021, Gina Raimondo voiced concern that the DMA would unfairly impact US-based tech companies such as Google and Apple.
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Gina Raimondo was criticized by 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 of "lobbying on behalf of Big Tech".
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On September 25,2024, Gina Raimondo faced backlash after saying on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" of former president Donald Trump, "Let's extinguish him for good".
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Gina Raimondo spoke at a convening of the International Network of AI Safety Institutes in San Francisco on November 20,2024.
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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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Gina Raimondo was criticized in an opinion piece published in The Hill for using CHIPS funding for DEI initiatives, specifically chip-making training programs at historically black colleges and universities.
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In March 2022, Gina Raimondo said that Chinese companies attempting to sell semiconductor technology to Russia in violation of US sanctions would face repercussions.
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From August 27 to 30,2023, Gina Raimondo visited China, where she met minister of culture and tourism Hu Heping, minister of commerce Wang Wentao, vice premier He Lifeng, and premier Li Qiang.
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Gina Raimondo visited Shanghai, where she met with Shanghai Communist Party secretary Chen Jining and visited Shanghai Disneyland.
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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 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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On January 27,2025, CFR announced that Gina Raimondo will join the Council as a DC-based distinguished fellow, co-chairing its Task Force on economic security.
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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.