9 Things to Know About Elaine Chao
Chao didn't know a word of English when she arrived to the United States at age eight. Here's how she became one of Washington's most powerful women.
Born in Taiwan in 1953, Elaine Chao immigrated to the United States on a cargo ship when she was eight. She spoke no English at the time. Since then, she's served in some of the highest positions of government, banking, and the nonprofit world—most recently as President Trump's Secretary of Transportation, until she announced her resignation in the wake of the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol. Here are nine things you should know about her and what she's accomplished.
She became a U.S. citizen when she was 19, attended college at Mount Holyoke, and then got an MBA at Harvard Business School.
At Harvard, she was the first woman elected a class officer and class marshal. Afterward, she worked for Bank of America and Citicorp and was selected as one of 12 White House fellows during the Reagan administration.
In 1991 George H. W. Bush appointed her director of the Peace Corps.
After the Peace Corps, she became president of the United Way in 1992.
In 1993 she married Mitch McConnell, who is now the Senate Majority Leader.
The couple was set up on a blind date by a mutual friend.
The two married on Ronald Reagan's birthday.
"Before he was [Senate Majority] leader he actually cooked," Chao told CBS News. "I call him my low-maintenance husband."
Her father, Dr. James S.C. Chao, is a successful businessman.
He is the founder of a shipping company called the Foremost Group. Elaine's mother, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, died in 2007. Dr. Chao and the Chao family foundation donated $40 million to Harvard to fund the Ruth Mulan Chu Chao Center, which was completed in 2016. The executive education center was the first building at Harvard Business School named for a woman and the first named for an Asian-American on the Harvard campus.
She was George W. Bush's labor secretary from 2001 to 2009.
Chao was the first Asian-American woman to serve in a cabinet position and the only member of the Bush Administration to serve for all eight years.
She's campaigned on her husband's behalf.
"The biggest asset I have by far is the only Kentucky woman who served in a president’s cabinet, my wife, Elaine Chao," McConnell said at a Fancy Farm GOP political picnic in August 2014
Chao was sworn in as the Trump administration's transportation secretary on January 31, 2017.
Her extended family of 25 (including her husband and father) were there for the ceremony overseen by Vice President Mike Pence in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Chao resigned after the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
"Yesterday, our country experienced a traumatic and entirely avoidable event as supporters of the President stormed the Capitol building following a rally he addressed," Chao wrote in a statement posted to Twitter, announcing her resignation. "As I'm sure is the case with many of you, it has deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside."
Sam Dangremond is a Contributing Digital Editor at Town & Country, where he covers men's style, cocktails, travel, and the social scene.
Watch Next
Barack Obama Meets with Belgian Royal Family
Biden Meets with Kennedys at the White House
Joe Biden's Life in Photos
Dr. Jill Biden's First Lady Fashion
