Ferraro, Geraldine (Anne)

(born Aug. 26, 1935, Newburgh, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. politician. She received her law degree from Fordham University Law School in 1960 and was admitted to the New York bar in 1961. She practiced law in New York until 1974, when she became assistant U.S. district attorney. In 1978 she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat. In 1984 the Democratic Party nominated her for vice president on a ticket with Walter Mondale; she thereby became the first woman to be nominated for vice president by a major U.S. political party. In 1992 and 1998 she ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate.

Ferraro, Geraldine (Anne) (1935– ) lawyer, U.S. representative; born in Newburgh, N.Y. The daughter of Italian immigrants, she graduated from New York Law School and established a successful law practice. She was assistant district attorney for Queens, N.Y. (1974–78), and served in the House of Representatives (Dem., N.Y.; 1979–85). In 1984, she was selected by Walter Mondale as his vice-presidential running mate—the first woman to run for this office with a major party. She engaged in a lively debate with her Republican opponent George Bush, but the threat of scandal from her husband's business affairs undermined her value to the Democratic ticket; she and Mondale lost the election overwhelmingly. She made an unsuccessful attempt to win the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in 1992.