Charlie Baker
Charles Duane Baker Jr. has been the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since January 8, 2015. He was a cabinet official under two governors of Massachusetts and served ten years as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He stepped down in July 2009 to run for governor on a platform of fiscal conservatism and cultural liberalism. In 2014, Baker ran for the office again, and narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Martha Coakley.
About Charlie Baker in brief
Charles Duane Baker Jr. has been the 72nd governor of Massachusetts since January 8, 2015. He was a cabinet official under two governors of Massachusetts and served ten years as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He served three years as a selectman of Swampscott and considered a run for Massachusetts governor in 2006. He stepped down in July 2009 to run for governor on a platform of fiscal conservatism and cultural liberalism. In 2014, Baker ran for the office again, and narrowly defeated Democratic nominee Martha Coakley. In 2018, he was reelected handily over Democratic challenger Jay Gonzalez with 67% of the vote, the largest vote share in a Massachusetts gubernatorial election since 1994 and more votes than U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was also running for reelection, received. As of March 29, 2020, Baker had a job approval rating of 80%. He had the highest approval rating. of any governor in the United States for eleven quarters in a row from the first quarter of 2017 to the third quarter of 2019. He is the fourth generation in the family to bear the forename Charles. His great-grandfather Charles D. Baker was an assistant United States attorney in New York, who served several years in the New York State Assembly. He grew up playing football, hockey, and baseball; he has described his childhood as ‘pretty all-American’ His father was a conservative Republican and his mother a liberal Democrat; the family was often drawn into political arguments at the dinner table. Baker attended Harvard College and graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.
He then attended Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, where he received an MBA. In 1991, he became Massachusetts Undersecretary of Health and Human Services under Governor Bill Weld. He later served as Secretary of Administration and Finance under Weld and his successor, Paul Cellucci. Baker served as corporate communications director for the late Massachusetts High Technology Council in the late 1980s. His father also served as undersecretary. of the U. S. Department of Health Services in the Reagan Administration under Representative Margaret Heckler. In 1969, the Bakers moved to Washington, D. C. where the elder Baker was assistant secretary for policy and international affairs in the Nixon Administration. In 1971, the family returned to Needham, Massachusetts, where Baker attended Needham High School. In 1979, he served on the student council, played basketball, and joined DeMolay International, a youth fraternity organization. In 1981, Baker was hired as codirector of the newly founded Pioneer Institute of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based libertarian think tank. In 1984, he wrote a book, “The Pioneer Institute: The Pioneer Institute and the Future of the American Idea”. In 1985, he co-founded Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a non-profit health benefits company. In 1987, he founded Harvard Vanguard Health Care, which later became Harvard Pilgrim. In 1989, he left to become CEO of the non-profits.
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This page is based on the article Charlie Baker published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 04, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
