Gina Raimondo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Gina Raimondo
Official portrait, 2021
40th United States Secretary of Commerce
Incumbent
Assumed office March 3, 2021
President	Joe Biden
Deputy	Don Graves
Preceded by	Wilbur Ross
75th Governor of Rhode Island
In office January 6, 2015 – March 2, 2021
Lieutenant	Dan McKee
Preceded by	Lincoln Chafee
Succeeded by	Dan McKee
30th Treasurer of Rhode Island
In office January 4, 2011 – January 6, 2015
Governor	Lincoln Chafee
Preceded by	Frank Caprio
Succeeded by	Seth Magaziner
Personal details
Born	Gina Marie Raimondo (1971-05-17) May 17, 1971 (age 53) Smithfield, Rhode Island, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Andrew Moffit ​ (m. 2001)​
Children	2
Education	Harvard University (BA) New College, Oxford (MA, DPhil) Yale University (JD)
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Gina Marie Raimondo (/rəˈmɒndoʊ/; born May 17, 1971) is an American businesswoman, lawyer, politician, and venture capitalist who has served since 2021 as the 40th United States secretary of commerce. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 75th governor of Rhode Island from 2015 to 2021, and was the first woman to serve in the role.

Born and raised in Rhode Island, Raimondo began her career in venture capital after law school. In 2000, she co-founded Point Judith Capital, Rhode Island's first venture capital firm. Raimondo entered politics in 2010, when she was elected general treasurer of Rhode Island. During her first year in office, she prioritized reforming Rhode Island's public employee pension system.

In 2014, Raimondo was elected governor in a three-way contest with 41% of the vote. While in office, Raimondo was elected to serve as vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) for the 2018 election cycle. Reelected in 2018, Raimondo was tasked with overseeing the state's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the 2020 presidential election, she served as co-chair of Michael Bloomberg's 2020 presidential campaign.

Described as a "moderate technocrat" in The Washington Post, Raimondo is often characterized as a centrist within her party. Chosen to serve as Secretary of Commerce by President Joe Biden, she played a leading role in negotiations for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021.

Early life and education

Gina Marie Raimondo was born in 1971 in Smithfield, Rhode Island, where she later grew up. Of Italian descent, she is the youngest of Josephine (Piro) and Joseph Raimondo's three children. Her father, Joseph (1926–2014), made his career at the Bulova watch factory in Providence, Rhode Island; he became unemployed at 56 when the Bulova company moved its operations to China, shuttering the factory in Providence. Raimondo is a childhood friend of U.S. Senator Jack Reed.

Raimondo graduated from LaSalle Academy in Providence. She was one of the first girls allowed to attend the Catholic school, from which she was graduated as valedictorian. She went on to Harvard College, graduating magna cum laude in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics. While at Harvard, Raimondo resided in Quincy House and served on the staff of The Harvard Crimson. She played rugby at the Radcliffe Rugby Club, later joking that the experience "was good training for a career in politics".

A Rhodes Scholar, Raimondo attended New College, Oxford, where she received a Bachelor of Arts (later promoted to Master of Arts by seniority) and Doctor of Philosophy in 2002 in sociology. Her thesis on single motherhood was supervised by Stephen Nickell and Anne H. Gauthier while she was a postgraduate student of New College, Oxford. Raimondo received her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School in 1998. She has said that her experience working at housing and poverty clinics inspired her to attend law school.

Early career

After graduating from law school, Raimondo served as a law clerk to federal judge Kimba Wood of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Later, 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.

Raimondo returned to Rhode Island in 2001 to co-found the state's first venture capital firm, Point Judith Capital. Point Judith later relocated to Boston, Massachusetts. At Point Judith, Raimondo served as a general partner covering health care investments; she retains some executive duties with the firm. Under her leadership, Point Judith grew to over $100 million in assets and reportedly helped grow over 20 businesses.

General Treasurer of Rhode Island (2011–2015)

2010 election

In 2010, incumbent general treasurer Frank T. Caprio chose to run for governor rather than seek a second consecutive term in office. Describing the position of general treasurer as “a professional job, not a political job", Raimondo announced her candidacy for the position, her first campaign for elected office. In April 2010, former Democratic primary opponent Tom Sgouros dropped out of the race and endorsed Raimondo, leaving her as the only Democratic candidate.

Running a campaign that emphasized her business credentials, Raimondo pledged to "use the power as the chief investment officer to lean on banks to invest again". Her platform called for financial empowerment programs at senior centers and schools, and for protecting consumers from predatory lending and mortgages. On November 2, Raimondo was elected general treasurer, defeating Republican nominee Kernan F. King by a margin of 62% to 38%.

Tenure

During her first year as general treasurer, she prioritized reforming Rhode Island's public employee pension system, which was 48% funded in 2010. In April 2011, Raimondo led the state retirement board to reduce the state's assumed rate of return on pension investments from 8.25 percent to 7.5 percent.

In May 2011, 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. The Rhode Island Retirement Security Act (RIRSA) was enacted by the General Assembly on November 17, 2012, with bipartisan support in both chambers. The next day, then-Governor Lincoln Chafee signed RIRSA into law. RIRSA's legality was challenged in court by the public employee unions, but a settlement was reached in June 2015.

Under Raimondo's tenure, the pension fund was criticized for underperforming when compared with its peers. 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.

Raimondo in 2012

OSIP program

Raimondo created the Ocean State Investment Pool (OSIP), 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. $500 million in funds could be eligible for the program, which would enable Treasury "to extend its expertise to municipalities and improve investment returns by creating economies of scale". The program officially launched on April 23, 2012. As of November 2021, the OSIP program is managed by Fidelity Investments.

Payday lending

During the Rhode Island General Assembly's 2012 session, Raimondo advocated for a decrease in the maximum allowable interest rate on payday loans in Rhode Island. She hosted a roundtable discussion with then-Providence mayor Angel Taveras and members of the Rhode Island Payday Reform Coalition.

Raimondo submitted letters to the Senate and House Corporations Committees in support of payday reform legislation. She wrote: "Far too many families are facing financial challenges that might be mitigated or avoided through a greater understanding of personal finance," and "payday loans exploit that lack of understanding ... With numerous economic challenges, Rhode Island should not permit the sale of a financial product that traps so many customers in a cycle of debt." Raimondo wrote an op-ed in the May 29, 2012 edition of The Providence Journal in support of payday lending reform.

Governor of Rhode Island (2015–2021)

Raimondo at her inauguration in 2015

Elections

In 2014, 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. On November 4, 2014, Raimondo won the general election with 41% of the vote in a three-way race versus Republican Allan Fung and Moderate Party nominee Robert J. Healey.

Raimondo was elected to serve as the vice chair of the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) for the 2018 election cycle. She was elected chair of the DGA in 2019. In 2018, Raimondo was reelected, defeating former secretary of state Matt Brown in the Democratic primary and Republican nominee Fung in the general election. Her reelection made her the first candidate to secure a majority of votes for that office since 2006.

Tenure

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. During her tenure, she was credited with cutting taxes every year and removed eight thousand pages of regulations—30% of the state's regulations. She 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. Raimondo appointed more judges of color than any of her predecessors, including Melissa A. Long, the first Black woman to serve on the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

As governor, Raimondo presided over Rhode Island's initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 28, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo threatened Raimondo with a lawsuit over a new state quarantine policy that would require people from New York, which had been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, to self-quarantine for 14 days upon arrival in Rhode Island. On March 29, Raimondo repealed the order that specifically referred to New Yorkers, and broadened it to include any out-of-state traveler entering Rhode Island with intent to stay. Partnering with CVS, the nation's largest pharmacy chain, her state achieved one of the nation's highest per capita levels of testing for COVID-19.

Approval ratings

Between assuming office and the end of 2019, Raimondo consistently ranked toward the bottom of approval ratings for U.S. governors. But her approvals rose significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. State-by-state polling by Microsoft News in April 2020 found that 76% of Rhode Islanders said they approved of the work Raimondo and her administration did "to keep people safe" during the ongoing crisis. This result meant that she was tied with the governors of North Dakota and Utah for the 12th-highest rating.

National politics

In early February 2020, 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". Raimondo was named a national co-chair for the Bloomberg campaign.

Press secretary Jennifer Bogdan Jones of the Governor's Office told The Providence Journal that Raimondo "is prepared to do whatever it takes to support Mike and defeat President Trump." As campaign co-chair, Raimondo would have "provided advice and attended events". Less than a month later, Bloomberg dropped out of the race and endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. On the same day, Raimondo also endorsed Biden. She said Bloomberg "obviously" performed poorly on the debate stage but supporting his candidacy "was an easy decision for me at the beginning. But [supporting Biden] is an easy decision, too." Raimondo concluded that it was now time "to unify behind Joe Biden".

In May 2020, Washington Post writer George Will wrote in favor of Raimondo being chosen as Biden's running mate in the 2020 election.

Secretary of Commerce (2021–present)

Nomination

First official portrait of Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo

Following the 2020 United States presidential election, Raimondo was routinely mentioned as a possible cabinet secretary in the incoming Biden administration. Though first seen as a likely Secretary of Health and Human Services, Raimondo announced on December 3, 2020, that she would not be taking that role. She was also considered for Secretary of the Treasury.

On January 7, 2021, Biden announced he would nominate Raimondo to serve as Secretary of Commerce. She appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on January 26. On March 1, the Senate voted 84–15 in favor of cloture on the nomination, and confirmed Raimondo to the position the following day by a vote of 84–15.

Tenure

Vice President Kamala Harris swears in Gina Raimondo as Secretary of Commerce Wednesday, March 3, 2021.

Raimondo was sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris on March 3, 2021. In August 2021, Politico reported that Raimondo had become one of the "administration's secret weapons on the Hill" in her role as a negotiator for the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 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.

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". In office, Raimondo has been noted for her willingness to work with corporate executives, and was described by Axios as "Tech's Favorite Biden Official". Time called her the federal government's "point woman on AI" policy. An analysis of Raimondo's schedule in office found that she held at least 101 meetings with representatives from Wall Street firms in her first two years in office.

In 2022, 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. This speculation attracted criticism from some progressives due to her status as a political moderate. Senator Elizabeth Warren told The New York Times that she had "real concerns about the department's approach, whether it's approving assault weapon sales, negotiating trade deals or supporting big tech companies".

During Raimondo's tenure, the Department of Commerce sanctioned NSO Group for selling spyware technology. As secretary of commerce, Raimondo has worked with other administration officials, such as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, on coordinating cybersecurity policy. In March 2021, she issued subpoenas to several China-based telecommunications firms, arguing that "unrestricted use of untrusted ICTS poses a national security risk". Raimondo has been a co-chair of the Trade and Technology Council since its creation in 2021.

According to Axios, "Raimondo has become the [tech] industry's key advocate within the Biden administration". She has been criticized by some progressives for opposing the European Commission's Digital Markets Act (DMA) proposal. In December 2021, Raimondo voiced concern that the DMA would unfairly impact U.S.-based tech companies such as Google and Apple. An analysis of her calendar found that, during her first two years in office, she had met with twice as many executives and lobbyists from Big Tech companies as her predecessor, Wilbur Ross, had during his four-year term in office.

During a luncheon hosted by the Chamber of Commerce, she argued the DMA "disproportionately impact[s] US-based tech firms". She 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". In March 2022, Warren accused Raimondo of "lobbying on behalf of Big Tech".

On September 25, 2024, Raimondo faced backlash after saying on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" of former president Donald Trump, "Let's extinguish him for good". Someone had tried to assassinate Trump less than two weeks earlier.

Chip policy

As secretary of commerce, Raimondo has helped lead the U.S. response to the global chip shortage and has urged Congress to pass legislation to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing. She has argued that the chip shortage presents a national and economic security threat to U.S. interests. 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. As secretary of commerce, Raimondo has advanced rules to prevent companies like Nvidia from exporting advanced AI chip technologies to China.

In July 2023, it was reported that Raimondo's government email account was hacked in a breach that originated in China.

Raimondo answers questions with Press Secretary Jen Psaki in the White House briefing room, April 2021

Foreign relations

Gina Raimondo with Antony Blinken, Stavros Lambrinidis, Margrethe Vestager, and Valdis Dombrovskis, before the inaugural U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC)

Gina Raimondo with Philippine President Bongbong Marcos

In September 2021, Raimondo accused China of violating the intellectual property (IP) rights of U.S. companies, and said that the Chinese government had put in place "all kinds of different barriers for American companies to do business in China." In October 2021, Senator Tom Cotton criticized her for saying "there's no point in talking about decoupling our economy from China's".

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Department of Commerce under Raimondo implemented export controls in order to restrict Russia's access to military technology. In March 2022, Raimondo said that Chinese companies attempting to sell semiconductor technology to Russia in violation of U.S. sanctions would face repercussions.

From August 27 to 30, 2023, 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. She also visited Shanghai, where she met with Shanghai Communist Party secretary Chen Jining and visited Shanghai Disneyland. During the meeting, the two sides announced a working group on commercial issues and an export control enforcement "information exchange" dialogue. During an October 2023 trip to Abu Dhabi, she raised concerns about G42's ties to China.

On March 11, 2024, on the United States Presidential Trade Mission to the Philippines, Raimondo met Alfredo E. Pascual and Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go at Solaire Resort & Casino and said, "On this trip alone, these 22 company heads in the delegation are announcing over $1 billion of U.S. investments, including educational [and training] opportunities to over 30 million Filipinos in the form of digital upskilling, artificial intelligence upskilling, and digital training."

Electoral history

2010 General Treasurer election

2014 gubernatorial election

2018 gubernatorial election

Personal life and recognition

On December 1, 2001, Raimondo married Andrew Kind Moffit, in Providence. The couple have two children. The family resides on the east side of Providence. Raimondo is a practicing Catholic and was one of the first girls to graduate from the La Salle Academy, a Catholic school in Providence.

Raimondo is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Aspen Institute Rodel fellow. She 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. Raimondo was elected alumni fellow of Yale in 2014.

Community service

Raimondo serves as vice chair of the board of directors of Crossroads Rhode Island, the state's largest homeless services organization. Until 2011, she was an administrator of Women and Infants Hospital and chair of its Quality Committee. She has served on the boards of La Salle Academy and Family Service of Rhode Island.

See also

In Spanish: Gina Raimondo para niños

• List of female governors in the United States
• List of female United States Cabinet members
• COVID-19 pandemic in Rhode Island