Granholm was born in British Columbia, Canada, but her family moved to California when she was four. She graduated from the University of California-Berkeley and Harvard Law School. She clerked for U.S. Judge Damon Keith on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. She married current "first gentleman" Daniel Mulhern, a corporate lawyer from Michigan and became in 1990 a U.S. prosecutor for the Detroit area. In 1994 she was appointed Wayne County Corporation Counsel. Granholm was elected Michigan Attorney General in 1998, serving for two years (1999-2001). She defeated Republican state senator Dick Posthumus in 2000 to become governor.
See also List of Governors of Michigan