Candidate for
Recall of Gray Davis; State of California

This is a brief biography. For more information, visit Arianna's official campaign website.

Arianna Huffington: From Athens to America

Arianna Huffington is an author, columnist and TV personality who has been a brilliant public gadfly for decades. She is a former Republican who has evolved into a compassionate and progressive populist. Her thinking on social problems is consistently fresh and original. In fact, most people say that she is impossible to categorize or pigeonhole, transcending the traditional "liberal" and "conservative" labels.

From Compassionate Conservative to Progressive Populist

Before the term was even coined, Arianna was the archetypal "compassionate conservative." She was calling for less government, while personally volunteering with community-based groups. But in soup kitchens and homeless shelters, she saw first-hand that many problems are too big to solve with charity and volunteerism alone. Over time, she evolved into what could be called a "compassionate progressive," gifted with a special ability to see solutions beyond the old liberal-conservative dichotomy.

Why She Will Be a Great Governor

Arianna has been an active political thinker and leader all her life. She understands both the Right and the Left intimately. She knows the establishment and the outsiders. And, most importantly, she was not a part of making the present mess in Sacramento. She is the ideal person, a woman uniquely qualified to help lead California through the present crisis.

Her Birthplace And Background

Arianna Stasinopoulos was born 53 years ago in Athens, Greece, to intensely political parents. As a young man, her father joined the resistance to the German occupation of Greece by editing an underground newspaper. He was caught, and spent the rest of the war in a German concentration camp. Her mother, whose family had fled Russia during the revolution, had a passion for cooking and learning. (Arianna has humorously compared her mom to the mother character in the hit movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding.) Arianna moved to the United States in 1980 with her mother, who lived with Arianna until her death three years ago. Formerly married to Michael Huffington, the businessman and former GOP congressman, Arianna Huffington now lives in Los Angeles with her two daughters.