Bachmann, Michele, 1956-

<p>Michele Marie Bachmann (/ˈbɑːxmən/; née Amble; born April 6, 1956) is an American politician who was the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 6th congressional district from 2007 until 2015. A member of the Republican Party, she was a candidate for President of the United States in the 2012 election, but lost the Republican nomination to Mitt Romney.</p>

<p>Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Bachmann moved to Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, as a teenager. She graduated from O. W. Coburn School of Law, the law school of Oral Roberts University, and the William & Mary Law School. After graduating, she briefly worked in tax law for the Internal Revenue Service before becoming a stay-at-home mom. She became involved in local politics, specifically around education.</p>

<p>Bachmann formally entered politics in 2000, when she was elected to the Minnesota Senate. In 2006, she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. After her unsuccessful run for president, Bachmann was elected to another term in the House in 2012, before announcing her retirement before the 2014 election.</p>

<p>In 2006 Michele Bachmann emerged from state politics to become the first Republican woman from Minnesota elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. By her third term, she had become a national figure in the Republican Party and a founding member of the congressional Tea Party Caucus. Bachmann’s ambitious conservative agenda made her one of the most prominent opponents of the Barack Obama administration during her time in Congress and encouraged her bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.</p>

<p>Michele Bachmann was born Michele Amble in Waterloo, Black Hawk County, Iowa, on April 6, 1956, to David Amble, an engineer, and Arlene (Jean) Johnson, a bank teller. The family moved to Anoka, Minnesota, in 1968, and she graduated from Anoka High School in 1974. She received a BA in political science and English from Winona State University in Winona, Minnesota, in 1978 and married Marcus Bachmann, a clinical therapist. She went on to study law at the Coburn School of Law at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, receiving a JD in 1986. Two years later, she completed a master’s of law in taxation at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. She worked for four years as a lawyer for the Internal Revenue Service’s Office of Chief Counsel, in St. Paul, Minnesota, but left the position after the birth of her second child in 1992.</p>

<p>Bachmann and her husband had five children and worked with a private foster care agency to house 23 children in their home in Stillwater, Minnesota, over the course of six years in the 1990s. Bachmann’s five children were home schooled and later attended private schools, and her political career stemmed from her interest in education reform. When she enrolled one of her children at a charter school, she took a position on the school’s board and collaborated with other like-minded parents and school administrators to emphasize the role of Christianity in American life throughout the curriculum. In December 1993, Bachmann resigned from the board after the state threatened to revoke the school’s charter.</p>