Charles Baker, the current Governor of our beloved Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is an inspiring man who defies boundaries and standards in our political system. Govenor Baker is a man that follows his set of beliefs and moral values first, before turning to the defined ideology of his Republican party, or president.
On November 13, 1956, Charles and Alice Baker welcomed to the world Charles Jr. Growing up in Needham, Massachusetts with two younger brothers, Jonathan and Alex, Charles grew up as a baseball, hockey and football enthusiast. Raised in politically divided household, Charles was thrown amidst political debate and ideologies at a very young age. After graduating from Needham High School in 1975, playing basketball and sitting on the student council, he attended Harvard University, graduating in 1979 with a BA in English and an unfavorable view of his experiences at Harvard. He continued to earn his MBA in management at Northwestern Kellogg School of Management .
To begin his professional career, Baker was hired as co-director of Boston’s new Pioneer Institute. From there he was recommended to Massachusetts’s Governor Weld, whom hired him as Undersecretary of Health and Human Services in 1991, beginning his career in the public sector. In 1992, he was promoted to Secretary and played a large role in the Big Dig, a colossal underground construction project in downtown Boston. After six years in this role, Baker took a temporary leave of absence from the public sector to work for a non-profit, as CEO and president of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. He returned to politics as selectman of Swampscott for three  years and considered running for Governor as a social liberal and fiscal conservative in 2005. Baker decided against this idea but soon later, in July of 2009, he announced his candidacy for the 2010 election. Baker did not win this election for Governor but won the subsequent election in 2014. As Governor, some of his greatest accomplishments are granting 4.6 billion dollars to our local education fund and, in 2017, declaring Boston as a sanctuary city for Middle Eastern immigrants after President Donald Trump placed a controversial travel ban on six Arab countries. Today, Baker remains in the State House, living in Swampscott, with his wife, Lauren, and three children; A.J, Caroline and, of course, Charlie.