Carol Moseley Braun was born in Chicago on August 16, 1947. She earned her political science and law degrees from the University of Illinois and began working as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago in 1973.
Moseley Braun served in the Illinois House of Representatives for ten years, beginning in 1978, before she was elected recorder of deed for Cook County, Illinois.
In 1992, Moseley Braun defeated Democratic incumbent Senator Alan Dixon in the primary. Then, she went on to defeat Republican opponent Richard Williamson to become the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate.
She was also the first woman to defeat an incumbent U.S. Senator in an election and the first and only female Senator from Illinois. She later served as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand.
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