Whitman, Christine Todd, 1946-

Variant names

Dates:

Active 1853

Active 2005

Birth 1946-09-26

Gender:

Female

Nationality: Americans

Language: English

Biographical notes:

Christine Todd Whitman (born September 26, 1946) is an American Republican politician and author who served as the 50th Governor of New Jersey, from 1994 to 2001, and as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency in the administration of President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003. She is the first and only woman to be governor of New Jersey, to date.

Born Christine Temple Todd in New York City, Whitman grew up on her family's farm, Pontefract, in Oldwick, New Jersey. As a child she attended Far Hills Country Day School before being sent to boarding school at Foxcroft in Virginia. Christine disliked being so far away from home and after a year transferred to the Chapin School in Manhattan, allowing her to return home on the weekends. After graduating from Wheaton College in 1968, earning a bachelor of arts degree in government, she worked for Nelson Rockefeller's presidential campaign. During the Nixon administration, Whitman worked for the Office of Economic Opportunity under Donald Rumsfeld. Later elected to two terms on the Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders, she served as deputy director and director of the board. From 1988 to 1990, she served as president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities under governor Thomas Kean. She was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey in 1990, losing narrowly to incumbent Bill Bradley.

Whitman ran against incumbent James Florio for governor in 1993, and defeated him by one percentage point to become the first female governor in New Jersey history. She was the second woman and first Republican woman to defeat an incumbent governor in a general election. Whitman was re-elected in 1997, narrowly defeating Jim McGreevey, the mayor of Woodbridge Township. Whitman was appointed by President George W. Bush as Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, taking office on January 31, 2001, serving in the office until June 2003.

Whitman is the President of the Whitman Strategy Group, a consulting firm that specializes in energy and environmental issues. In 2005, she released a book entitled It's My Party, Too: Taking Back the Republican Party... And Bringing the Country Together Again in which she criticized the policies of the George W. Bush administration and its electoral strategy. A moderate voice within the Republican Party, she broke ranks to support Hillary Clinton's candidacy for President in 2016 and spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention in support of Joe Biden.