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Peter Fitzgerald (senator)

Peter Fitzgerald
Peter Fitzgerald.jpg
United States Senator
from Illinois
In office
January 3, 1999 – January 3, 2005
Preceded by Carol Moseley Braun
Succeeded by Barack Obama
Illinois State Senator
from the 27th District
In office
January 13, 1993 – November 16, 1998
Preceded by Virginia B. McDonald
Succeeded by Wendell E. Jones
Personal details
Born Peter Gosselin Fitzgerald
(1960-10-20) October 20, 1960 (age 56)
Elgin, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality American
Political party Republican
Spouse(s) Nina Fitzgerald
Residence Inverness, Illinois (1960-2005)
McLean, Virginia (2005-present)
Alma mater Dartmouth College
Aristotelian University
University of Michigan
Religion Roman Catholic

Peter Gosselin Fitzgerald (born October 20, 1960) is a former United States Senator from Illinois. A Republican, he served from 1999 to 2005. Fitzgerald defeated the Democratic incumbent in 1998, becoming the first Republican senator from Illinois in 20 years. He had previously served in the Illinois State Senate from 1992 to 1998.

Known as a maverick for his willingness to break party lines, Fitzgerald retired from the Senate in 2005 and was succeeded by Barack Obama. After retiring from politics, he and his wife moved to McLean, Virginia. The son of millionaire banking magnate Gerald Francis Fitzgerald, Peter founded Chain Bridge Bank in 2007.

Born in Elgin, Illinois, one of five children of Gerald Francis and Marjorie (née Gosselin) Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald spent most of his life in Inverness, a northwestern suburb of Chicago.

He graduated from Portsmouth Abbey School, a Catholic boarding school in 1978, and from Dartmouth College in 1982. He completed his post-graduate studies as a Rotary Scholar at Aristotelian University in Greece, and earned his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1986. His family has been continuously involved in commercial banking since the mid-1940s. His father built Suburban Bancorp, a chain of suburban banks, by aggressively founding and buying banks around the Chicago suburbs, which he sold in 1994 to a subsidiary of the Bank of Montreal for $246 million.

Fitzgerald was first elected to the state Senate in 1992. He was a member of a group of conservative state senators elected in 1992. They often challenged the leadership of the Illinois Republican Party and were dubbed the "Fab Five." The group also included Steve Rauschenberger, Dave Syverson, Patrick O'Malley and Chris Lauzen.


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