Barack Hussein Obama (born August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii) is the junior United States Senator from Illinois. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, he is the fifth African American Senator in U.S. history and the only African American currently serving in the U.S. Senate.^[1]

After graduating from law school, Obama moved to Illinois, where he was elected to the state senate in 1996 as a Democrat. Four years later, he made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. House of Representatives. After rededicating his efforts to the state senate and winning reelection in 2002, Obama ran for an open seat in the U.S. Senate two years later. Midway through the campaign, Obama delivered the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, raising his national stature.

Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 with 70% of the votes.^[2] He has been identified in recent opinion polls as the second most popular choice among Democratic voters for their party’s nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, behind New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton^[3] and on January 16, 2007 took the first step toward launching a Presidential campaign, by forming an exploratory committee.^[4]

^{(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)}