Who is Hillary Clinton and where does she stand on important political issues?

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton  was born on October 26, 1947 in Chicago and raised in Illinois. She was raised in a Republican family, and was politically active even as a high school student, but during her years as a student at Wellesley College, began to shift towards the Democratic party, a position she has maintained throughout her adult life. In college, she became active in supporting the movement against the Vietnam War and became involved with the Civil Rights Movement. She graduated in 1969 with departmental honors and enrolled in Yale Law School, where she met Bill Clinton (her soon to be husband). She graduated from law school in 1973. During her time at Yale, she began her work on children's issues, including serving as a lawyer for the Children's Defense Fund.

Moving to Arkansas with her husband Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton continued to practice as a lawyer, teach law, and work on advocacy projects, especially those benefiting children, including being part of such organizations as Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, and Arkansas Children's Hospital, Legal Services, and the Children's Defense Fund. When her husband became President, Clinton continued to take an active role in politics, including advocating for health care reform. 

After the end of her husband's two-term presidency, Hillary Clinton was elected United States Senator from New York in 2000 and served two terms. In 2008 she ran against Obama for President in the Democrat primaries; although she did not succeed in being nominated, she served the Obama administration as U.S. Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. With her return to private life in 2013, she continued to advocate for women's and children's rights as well as writing her memoirs and becoming a popular lecturer. On April 12, 2015, she formally became a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President.

Her political positions are usually described as mainstream center left, advocating for gradual change based on a technocratic approach to policy and a belief in making necessary compromises to get legislation passed.  

Clinton supports for equality for minorities, women, and members of the LBGT community. She wants to improve the Affordable Care Act to make insurance increasingly affordable and accessible and ensure adequate parental and medical leave for all workers; she believes that all people have the right to adequate medical care. She supports a federal minimum wage increase to $12 per hour. Clinton supports immigration reform and education reform. In foreign policy, she is moderately hawkish, believing that the United States must stay engaged with the rest of the world but work multilaterally rather than unilaterally. She wants to act to moderate climate change, improve infrastructure, and reduce gun violence in the United States.