| abstract | - Waldemar Payton (born October 7, 1965) is the 46th and current President of the United States. He was born in Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital in Spokane, Washington; the youngest of three children of William Payton and Marie Payton (née Shelby). His older brothers were, Victor and Albert. Payton's father was a police officer and former United States Army infantry officer. After he graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane in 1983, he went on to Gonzaga University. Payton graduated from Gonzaga in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Army via the Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps. While at Gonzaga, he decided to become an intelligence officer. Upon completing the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course at the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, Payton was assigned to the 502nd Military Intelligence Battalion as a platoon leader. Soon after, he married his girlfriend of three years, Lucy Alexander. Payton eventually rose to the position of a company commander. He was later assigned to the 202nd Military Intelligence Battalion as a counterintelligence detachment commander. Payton left the U.S. Army at the rank of Major in 1997 after ten years of service. He then returned to Spokane with his wife, his daughters Katherine, and Marie. A little while later, Payton obtained employment as a business analyst at a local management consulting firm. In early 1999, he decided to run for Congress at his wife's encouragement. Payton won the Republican primary on March 7, 2000. On November 7, 2000, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives by the voters of Washington's 5th congressional district. Payton was re-elected to a second term in 2002, a third in 2004, a fourth in 2006, and a fifth term on November 4, 2008. On December 15, 2008, he was nominated for the position of United States Secretary of Defense by Michael Gorban, the President of the United States. After confirmation by the United States Senate on January 22, 2009, Payton resigned from his congressional seat and became the 23rd U.S. Secretary of Defense. On August 31, 2012, he was announced as the Republican vice presidential nominee by Republican presidential nominee Senator Horace Yancy of Pennsylvania. Payton resign his post as Secretary of Defense the next day. He officially became the vice presidential nominee at the Republican National Convention in Phoenix, Arizona on September 6, 2012. On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, Payton was elected 48th Vice President of the United States while Horace Yancy was elected 45th President of the United States. He was officially sworn into the vice presidency by Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on January 20, 2013 and then formally inaugurated on January 21, 2013. On December 31, 2014, President Yancy announced that he would not seek a second term. Payton announced his candidacy for the 2016 Republican nomination for the presidency on January 5, 2015. On May 3, 2016, he became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party after his victory in the Indiana primary and the withdrawal of the last competitors, Senator Nicholas Carroll of Texas and Governor Mike Proctor of Ohio, from the race. On May 26, Payton secured his 1,238th delegate, achieving a majority of the available delegates. On July 22, 2016, he announced the selection of Governor Demetrius Madson of Indiana as his vice-presidential running mate. On July 28, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio, Payton formally accepted the Republican Party's nomination at the 2016 Republican National Convention. On Tuesday, November 8, 2016, he was elected 46th president of the United States, beating former Secretary of State Gregory Zane of New York. Payton received 306 votes in the Electoral College and 51.9% in the popular vote. He was inaugurated and sworn into the presidency by Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts on January 20, 2017.
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