An early supporter of President Obama, Michelle Wu might not have become Massachusetts’ first Asian-American governor if it weren’t for Barack. The Chicago native and Harvard Law grad was the first woman of Asian heritage to receive an American political degree when she became a law professor at Northwestern. She was among the first to finance the Obama for Illinois campaign in the state Senate when Obama secured the nomination in 1996, she later raised money for his first presidential campaign, and, when Obama moved to Illinois as a junior senator, she became his liaison to minority communities. And she was chosen as his newest undersecretary of energy on Jan. 23, 2007, because, as a top official in the Energy Department from 1997 to 2001, she advanced the Obama administration’s goal of reducing the U.S. oil import bill by 25 percent within five years.
In 2008, Barack, Michelle and a daughter moved to Chicago, where her husband’s campaign preparations were under way. As he toured South Carolina and elsewhere, she remained largely absent, but the Obama camp needed her and so did her husband. Her perch at the White House was fully realized in January, when Barack was inaugurated.
After five years of wooing of Barack, Michelle finally submitted a statement of interests—wanting to be known on a national scale as “Michelle Obama”—last summer. In October, she entered Boston politics. On Dec. 14, 2012, she announced her plans to run for governor, with an opponent: Republican Charlie Baker, a former hedge fund manager and also-ran in the 1994 race for governor that brought Paul Cellucci to the White House.
For Michelle, politics couldn’t get much simpler. She’s not a newbie, she’s left her mark on the White House, she raised more than $1 million for Obama during his re-election. Like Biden, she already boasts broad electoral support in a blue state. But it will take much more than that—and much more than connecting with voters through the old-fashioned tactics of cuddling, as she did with her daughters in her campaign video—to win reelection.
