Tommy G. Thompson

Tommy Thompson was born in 1941 in Elroy, Wisconsin, where his father ran a small grocery store. The third of five children, Thompson says his family was very poor, a situation he did not realize until he left for college and saw, for the time, a larger world outside his close-knit community.

At 10, Thompson hired himself out as a painter. He painted barns until he was 15, and then he worked for a road construction company, which he did for the next six years. Thompson attended a two-room schoolhouse and lettered in football, baseball, basketball, and track.

Thompson attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he majored in political science and history. He worked in a fraternity as a food server and in a pub as a bartender. He also worked at the state capitol as a messenger and clerk, and he eventually earned a law degree.

Thompson's home district in the Wisconsin state legislature was represented by a 16-year incumbent; at the age of 23, Thompson decided to challenge him. The opponent never took Thompson's campaign seriously; in fact, the incumbent enjoyed an Alaskan cruise during the campaign. Thompson came home from school with only 30 days left before the Republican primary. On an allowance of $10 a day for food and gas, he knocked on every door in the district. Thompson won the general election and spent the next 20 years in office.

In 1973, Thompson became assistant assembly minority leader, and eight years later, he moved up to assembly minority leader. In 1986, he ran for governor and became the only Republican in the country that year to defeat a Democratic incumbent. In 1990, Thompson was reelected, and in 1994, he became the first governor in Wisconsin history to win a third four-year term. President George W. Bush appointed him secretary of Health and Human Services, and he served from 2001 to 2005.

Thompson made an unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He then became a partner in a large Washington, D.C., law firm, focused on the healthcare industry, as well as on companies in the public sector. He advises youth that "hard work and common sense are always winners. Believe in yourself and don't be afraid to take risks."