Sheldon Whitehouse, (born October 20, 1955, New York, New York, U.S.), American politician who was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 2006 and began representing Rhode Island in that body the following year.
He was born in New York, the son of Charles Sheldon Whitehouse, a diplomat who later served as ambassador to Laos and Thailand. After earning a bachelor’s degree in architecture (1978) from Yale University, he studied law (J.D., 1982) at the University of Virginia. He then clerked with the Supreme Court of West Virginia before moving to Rhode Island, where in 1984 he was appointed a special assistant attorney general. He remained in the attorney general’s office until 1990. During that time he married (1986) Sandra Thornton, and the couple later had two children. In 1991 he entered the executive administration of Gov. Bruce Sundlun, serving as legal counsel and later as policy director (1992). Whitehouse was director of the Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation when Pres. Bill Clinton appointed him the U.S. attorney for Rhode Island in 1994. During his four years in the post, he notably prosecuted cases involving organized crime and corruption. In 1998 he was elected attorney general of Rhode Island, serving from 1999 to 2004. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2002.