Famous Political Figures

• Abbas, Mahmoud

  President of the Palestinian Authority

• Adams, Sam

  The openly gay mayor of Portland, Oregon, 2009-12 

• Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud

  President of Iran, 2005-2013

• Alexander, Lamar

  The plaid-shirt candidate

• Annan, Kofi

  The 7th U.N. Secretary-General, 1997-2006

• Arafat, Yasser

  Head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, 1969-2004

• Aristide, Jean-Bertrand

  Beleaguered president of Haiti, 2001-2004

• Ashcroft, John

  U.S. Attorney General 2001-05

• Aung San Suu Kyi

  Leader of the democratic movement in Myanmar

• Bachmann, Michele

  Minnesota Congresswoman and 2012 presidential candidate

• Baldwin, Tammy

  The first openly gay U.S. senator

• Ban Ki-moon

  8th U.N. Secretary-General, 2007-16

• Bannon, Steve

  The Donald Trump advisor who was indicted for money laundering and fraud

• Barkley, Alben W.

  Vice President under Harry S. Truman, 1949-53

• Bauer, Gary

  Head of the Family Research Council

• Bentsen, Lloyd

  Debater who said, "You're no Jack Kennedy"

• Betancourt, Ana

  The early feminist in Cuba's fight for independence

• Blair, Tony

  British prime minister, 1997-2007

• Bolten, Joshua

  Chief of Staff to George W. Bush, 2006-2009

• Bolton, John

  Mustachioed U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 2005-06

• Bradley, Bill

  Democratic senator from New Jersey

• Bremer, Paul

  The U.S. diplomat in charge of occupied Iraq, 2003-04

• Brennan, John O.

   The director of the C.I.A. from 2013-2017

• Brown, Gordon

  British prime minister, 2007-2010

• Bryan, William Jennings

  The populist politician who defended the Bible in the Scopes trial

• Bryson, John

  U.S. Secretary of Commerce, 2011-2013

• Buchanan, Pat

  Pugnacious political talker on CNN

• Bunche, Ralph

  The first black American to win the Nobel Peace Prize

• Burr, Aaron

  The Vice President who killed Alexander Hamilton

• Byrd, Robert C.

  The West Virginia Democrat who was the longest serving Member of Congress

• Cain, Herman

  Former Godfather's Pizza CEO and 2012 presidential candidate

• Campbell, Kim

  Canada's first woman prime minister

• Castro, Raul

  The president of Cuba, 2008-18

• Chao, Elaine

  U.S. Secretary of Labor, 2001-09

• Chiang Kai-shek

  Leader of The Republic of China (Taiwan), 1949-75

• Chirac, Jacques

  President of France, 1995-2007

• Chisholm, Shirley

  The first African-American woman to run for U.S. president

• Chomsky, Noam

  Creator of the theory of generative grammar

• Chretien, Jean

  Prime Minister of Canada, 1993-2003

• Christie, Chris

  The Governor of New Jersey, 2010-2018

• Cicero

  The Roman statesman who stood up to Marc Antony

• Clark, Wesley K.

  Former NATO commander and presidential hopeful

• Clegg, Nick

  Deputy Prime Minister of the U.K., 2010-2015

• Coakley, Martha

  Attorney General of Massachusetts, 2007-2015

• Condit, Gary

  The congressman who knew the murdered intern Chandra Levy

• Conyers, John Jr.

  U.S. Congressman from Michigan, 1964-2017

• Davis, Jefferson

  President of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War

• Davis, Wendy

  The Texas state senator who filibustered an abortion bill

• Dean, Howard

  Former governor of Vermont and outspoken 2004 candidate for U.S. president

• Debs, Eugene

  Socialist presidential candidate, 1900-1920

• Devi, Phoolan

  Modern India's "Bandit Queen"

• Dole, Bob

  The 1996 Republican candidate for president

• Dole, Elizabeth

  Senator from North Carolina, 2003-09

• Dole, Sanford B.

  The first governor of Hawaii

• Dukakis, Michael

  1988 Democratic nominee for U.S. President

• ElBaradei, Mohamed

  The Egyptian winner of the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize

• Fayyad, Salam

  The Palestinian finance minister who became emergency prime minister

• Fiorina, Carly

  The Hewlett-Packard CEO who ran for president

• Forbes, Steve

  Publisher of Forbes magazine

• Fox, Vicente

  President of Mexico, 2000-2006

• Gandhi, Indira

  Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 and 1980-84

• Garvey, Marcus

  Founder of the "back to Africa" movement

• Genét, Edmond Charles

  Rabble-rousing French minister to the U.S., 1793

• Goebbels, Joseph

   Adolf Hitler's Minister of Propaganda, 1933-45

• Gonzales, Alberto

  U.S. Attorney General, 2005-2007

• Goss, Porter

  The CIA director who resigned suddenly in 2006

• Hamilton, Alexander

  Co-author of The Federalist Papers

• Hancock, John

  The Founding Father with the giant signature

• Haniya, Ismail

  Palestinian Prime Minister, 2006-present

• Hanson, John

  The guy who was sort-of the first American president

• Harper, Stephen

  Prime Minister of Canada, 2006-2015

• Hayden, Tom

  The California political activist once married to Jane Fonda

• Ho Chi Minh

  Communist leader of North Vietnam, 1945-69

• Hoffa, Jimmy

  The powerful Teamsters honcho missing since 1975

• Hoover, J. Edgar

  Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, 1924-72

• House, Edward M. "Colonel"

  Woodrow Wilson's advisor at the Paris Peace Conference

• Houston, Sam

  Namesake of the city of Houston

• Jackson, Jesse

  Aide to Martin Luther King and candidate for U.S. president

• Jiang Qing

  Mao's wife and leader of the Gang of Four

• Jinnah, Muhammad Ali

  Founder of Pakistan

• Johnson, Boris

  Prime Minister of the U.K. from 2019-2022

• Johnson, Gary

  The Libertarian presidential candidate in 2012 and 2016

• Kasich, John

  Host of The Heartland with John Kasich

• Kavanaugh, Brett

  The U.S. Supreme Court justice confirmed by a 50-48 Senate vote in 2018

• Kennedy, Joseph Sr.

  The millionaire father of President John F. Kennedy

• Kennedy, Michael

  The Kennedy who died while skiing

• Kerensky, Alexander

  Head of Russia between the czar and the Bolsheviks

• Keyes, Alan

  African-American conservative and sometime presidential candidate

• Kim Il-sung

  Longtime "Great Leader" of North Korea

• Kim Jong-il

  The dictatorial leader of North Korea, 1994-2011

• King, William Rufus de Vane

  Franklin Pierce's vice president, who died a month into it

• Kucinich, Dennis

  Youthful mayor of Cleveland (1977) and presidential candidate (2004, 2008)

• LaDuke, Winona

  Native American activist who was a vice presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000

• Lagarde, Christine

   The head of the International Monetary Fund, 2011-present

• Lage, Carlos

  Vice President of Cuba

• Lascurain, Pedro

  President of Mexico for under an hour

• Le Pen, Jean-Marie

  Leader of France's National Front party

• Le Pen, Marine

  French political leader of the National Front party, 2011-17

• Libby, Lewis "Scooter"

  Dick Cheney's chief of staff, 2001-2005

• Luce, Clare Boothe

  Socialite, playwright, ambassador and wife of publisher Henry Luce

• Lukashenko, Alexander

  President of Belarus, 1994-present

• Maathai, Wangari

  The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize

• Macdonald, John A.

  Prime Minister of Canada 1867-73 and 1878-91

• Macron, Emmanuel

  The president of France since 2017

• Madame Chiang Kai-shek

  Wife of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek

• Mandela, Nelson

  The first black president of South Africa

• Mann, Horace

  The "Father of American Education"

• Milk, Harvey

  The gay San Francisco city official gunned down in 1978

• Mousavi, Mir-Hossein

  Iranian presidential challenger to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• Nader, Ralph

  Author of Unsafe at Any Speed and perennial presidential candidate

• Nagy, Imre

  Martyred hero of Hungary's 1956 revolution

• Napolitano, Janet

  Governor of Arizona, 2003-2009

• Nasrallah, Hassan

  Leader of the Hezbollah party, 1992-

• Neruda, Pablo

  The Chilean poet who won the 1971 Nobel Prize

• Newton, Huey

  Co-founder of the Black Panthers

• Nieto, Enrique Penã

  President of Mexico, 2012 - present

• O'Hair, Madalyn Murray

  Head of American Atheists

• Olmert, Ehud

  The Israeli prime minister convicted of bribery in 2014

• Paine, Thomas

  The author of Common Sense

• Paul, Rand

  U.S. senator from Kentucky, 2010-present

• Paulson, Henry Jr.

  U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 2006-09

• Peres, Shimon

  The 8th prime minister of Israel

• Peron, Eva

  Argentina's famous First Lady, known as Evita

• Perot, Ross

  The wealthy Texan who founded EDS and ran for president in 1992 and 1996

• Phyllis McAlpin Stewart

  The Republican woman who helped defeat the ERA in the 1970s

• Plame, Valerie

  The CIA agent named publicly by Robert Novak in 2003

• Pocahontas

  The Algonquian princess who befriended English settlers in 1607

• Prejean, Carrie

  The Miss California who said she's against gay marriage

• Priebus, Reince

  The RNC chairman who became Donald Trump's Chief of Staff

• Pétain, Henri Philippe

  He sold out France to the Nazis

• Rasputin, Grigori

  Wild-eyed court mystic of Czarist Russia

• Reed, Ralph

  The executive director of the Christian Coalition, 1989-97

• Rhodes, Cecil

  The English diamond magnate and South African politician

• Richelieu, Cardinal

  The power behind the throne of Louis XIII

• Robespierre, Maximilien

  French revolutionary leader during the Reign of Terror

• Rouhani, Hassan

  The president of Iran, 2013-present

• Sadr, Muqtada al-

  Fiery young anti-U.S. cleric in post-Hussein Iraq

• Sanford, Mark

  The South Carolina governor who was caught with an Argentinian mistress

• Sanger, Margaret

  Co-founder of what became Planned Parenthood

• Schiff, Adam

  The California congressman leading the Trump impeachment inquiry in 2019

• Seale, Bobby

  Co-founder, with Huey Newton, of the Black Panther Party

• Sessions, Jeff

  U.S. Attorney General, 2017-2018

• Sharpton, Al

  New York's African-American preacher, activist and presidential candidate 

• Sherman, Roger

  The Founding Father responsible for The Connecticut Compromise

• Sirleaf, Ellen Johnson

  The Nobel Prize-winning president of Liberia

• Solis, Hilda

  U.S. Secretary of Labor, 2009-present

• Sorensen, Ted

  Counselor and speechwriter for John F. Kennedy

• Specter, Arlen

  The Democrat-Republican-Democrat senator from Pennsylvania

• Strauss-Kahn, Dominique

  The IMF director accused of sexual assault in 2011

• Suleiman, Omar

  The spy chief who was Egypt's vice president for two weeks in 2011

• Summers, Lawrence H.

  Director of the U.S. National Economic Council, 2009-present

• Tojo, Hideki

  Japanese Prime Minister during World War II

• Trudeau, Justin

  The Prime Minister of Canada, 2015-present

• Trudeau, Pierre

  Prime minister of Canada, 1968-84

• Walesa, Lech

  Trade union activist who became president of Poland

• Webb, Jim

  The Marine and Senate veteran who wrote Fields of Fire

• Weiner, Anthony

  The New York congressman who resigned over sexting in 2011

• Woodhull, Victoria Claflin

  The first woman candidate for U.S. President

• Wyclef Jean

  The hip-hop star who tried to run for president of Haiti

• Yoo, John

  Creator of the "Yoo Doctrine" under President George W. Bush

• Young, Coleman

  Mayor of Detroit, 1974-1993

• Yushchenko, Viktor

  President of the Ukraine, 2005-present

• Zimmermann, Arthur

  Author of "The Zimmermann Telegram"

See: Index by Occupation