![Barack Obama's political career kicked off in the Illinois State Senate, evolved into a two-term presidency](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/president-barack-obama-2015-scaled.jpg)
Barack Obama's political career kicked off in the Illinois State Senate, evolved into a two-term presidency
Fox News
Former President Obama spent two terms in the White House, from 2009 through 2017. Obama, his wife Michelle and their daughters live quieter lives now but are still involved in the political sphere.
Barack Obama was the 44th president of the United States. His career in politics began when he was elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. (TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images) In 2004, Barack Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate. In February 2007, he announced that he would be running for president. (Chuck Kennedy/MCT/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) Then-Sen. Barack Obama spent the following year campaigning and gaining support from around the country to secure the Democratic nomination. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) Leading up to his first presidential term, then-Sen. Barack Obama was up against Sen. John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. (Jim Bourg-Pool/Getty Images) Then-Sen. Barack Obama's running mate was then-Sen. Joe Biden, who would later become the 46th president of the United States. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images) On Nov. 4, 2008, then-Sen. Barack Obama defeated Sen. John McCain and became the first African American to be elected president. He was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009. (Alex Wong/Getty Images) After serving as the president for four years, then-President Obama ran for a second term. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) During the 2012 presidential election, incumbent President Obama was up against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) Incumbent President Obama was able to secure a second term after defeating Gov. Mitt Romney. Four years later, he gave his farewell address in Chicago on Jan. 10, 2017. (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) Former President Obama has been supported by his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, through his political triumphs. The two got married in 1992, and share two children, Malia and Sasha. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Ashlyn Messier is a writer for Fox News Digital.
Obama attended Occidental College in Los Angeles for two years before he transferred to Columbia University to study political science and international relations. He later went to Harvard Law School in 1988.