Declined 2012 Republican Presidential Candidate
Current Governor of Indiana
Mitch Daniels
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Daniels Age & Birthday
• Born: Mitchell Elias Daniels, Jr. on Thursday April 7th, 1949
• Mitch Daniels is 63 years old.
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• Mitch Daniels was born in Monongahela, Pennsylvania.
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Daniels Ancestry
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• Mitch Daniels is of Syrian and Scotch-Irish Descent.
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Daniels's Books
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• Notes From the Road
The Indiana Governor, noted more for his skills with numbers rather than words, wrote Notes From The Road which narrated his 50,000 miles journey throughout the state during his gubernatorial campaign of 2004, as he attempted to get closer to the heart and mind of the Hoosiers he promised to serve. Based on a compilation of daily postings to his website and campaign speeches, reading of his adventures roughing it out on couches and diners in the state as he drove himself in an RV, accompanied by a skeletal staff of campaign workers, should be required reading for any would be political aspirant.
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Daniels Career
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• Mitch Daniels has worked in both the private and public sectors.
• Daniels has served as Chief of Staff to Senator Richard Lugar.
• He was a Senior adviser to Ronald Reagan.
• Daniels served as CEO of Hudson Institute, bringing it back from the threat of bankruptcy into a thriving business.
• He was President of Eli Lilly’s North American Pharmaceutical Operations.
• He was elected Governor of Indiana in 2004, his first attempt at an elected office. He was re-elected in 2008 with more votes than any candidate in the state’s history.
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Daniels Childhood
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• He was born in the same delivery room where Joe Montana was born.
• His family lived in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Georgia before moving to Indiana in 1959.
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Daniels Children
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• Mitch Daniels has four daughters. Meagan, Melissa, Meredith and Maggie are all active in Christian ministries.
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Daniels Education
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• Daniels graduated North Central High School in Indianapolis in 1967 and was named Indiana’s Presidential Scholar by President Lyndon Johnson as the top male high school grad that year.
• His favorite subject in high school was physics.
• He earned a Bachelor’s with Honors from Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University in 1971.
• Daniels earned a Juris Doctor with Honors from Georgetown University in 1979.
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Daniels and the Military
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• Mitch Daniels legally deferred his eligibility while in college and after graduation his draft number, 147, was high enough that he was not called.
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Daniels Parents & Grandparents
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• Mitch Daniels has some rather colorful family history.
• His paternal grandfather, Elias Esau, was a Christian immigrant from Syria in the 1920’s. He chose the name Daniels at Ellis Island.
• When Elias had made enough money he returned to Syria to choose a bride, whom he brought back to Monongahela, Pennsylvania.
• As the Daniels family grew, Elias made a good living running a pool hall and making book.
• Mitchell Elias Daniels, his son, married Scotch-Irish Dorothy (Dotty) Mae Wilkes.
• Mitchell Daniels sold pharmaceuticals.
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Daniels Religion
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• Mitch Daniels is a Christian.
• He has attended Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in inner-city Indianapolis for 50 years.
• He believes that “atheism leads to brutality”
• With a few other couples from the church, he and his wife founded a Christ-centered school in 1998, the Oaks Academy, in the worst neighborhood in the city. It provides 315 poor children with a classical education. Its graduates have their choice of high schools due to their superior test scores.
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Daniels Siblings
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• Daniels’ sister Deborah is an accomplished jurist. In the early 90’s she worked at the Department of Justice
• Deborah served as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001-2005.
• She returned to private practice in 2005.
• In December of 2006 she became president of the Sagamore Institute for Policy Research.
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Daniels Spouse
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• Mitch Daniels married Cheri Lynn Herman, a baseball fan like himself, in 1978.
• The couple had their first daughter in 1980 followed by three more approximately 20 months apart.
• The couple divorced in 1993 and Cheri moved alone to California where she married a doctor.
• Cheri and Mitch remarried in 1997. Governor Daniels says, “If you like happy endings you’ll love our story”.
• Cheri is a very hands-off first lady and prefers to stay out of the spotlight. However, she does a lot of work for the community behind the scenes.
• She launched a campaign to educate women about heart disease.
• Cheri won the watermelon-seed-spitting contest at 2007 State Fair.
• She never campaigns with Mitch and rarely attends official functions.
• Cheri Daniels actively supports crisis pregnancy center ministries.
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