Bruce Rauner

Bruce Vincent Rauner (; born February 18, 1956) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the chairman of R8 Capital Partners and chairman of the Chicago-based private equity firm GTCR. Rauner announced his candidacy for governor of Illinois in June 2013. He won the Republican nomination in March 2014 and defeated Democratic incumbent Pat Quinn in the general election. Throughout Rauner's term in office, he was unable to achieve many of his legislative goals due to the state's Democratically-controlled legislature, and a standoff between Rauner and the legislature over budget cuts led to a two-year budget crisis. In the 2018 gubernatorial election, Rauner narrowly survived a challenge in the Republican primary from State Representative Jeanne Ives, but lost the general election to Democratic challenger J. B. Pritzker in a landslide. Rauner and his lieutenant Evelyn Sanguinetti remain the last Republicans to have held statewide office in Illinois. Early life and education Rauner was born in Chicago and grew up in Deerfield, Illinois, a suburb 10 miles north of Chicago city limits. His mother, Ann (née Erickson) Rauner (1931–2011), was a nurse, and his father, Vincent Rauner (1927–1997), was a lawyer and senior vice president for Motorola. He has three siblings, Christopher, Mark, and Paula, and is of half Swedish and half German descent. His parents divorced and his father remarried to the former Carol Kopay in 1981. Through his father's second marriage, he has a stepsister, Larisa Olson. His first job was as a paperboy. Rauner graduated summa cum laude with a degree in economics from Dartmouth College, where he was a brother of Theta Delta Chi. He later received an MBA from Harvard University.