American Birgitte Nyborg

Birgitte Knudsen Nyborg was born on September 1, 1968 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Her father, Ebbe Nyborg, was a photographer. Birgitte's mother, Susanne Andersen-Nyborg, was a school teacher. Both of her parents were originally from Denmark.

After Birgitte graduated from high school in 1986, she went on to Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Temple in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. Birgitte then enrolled in the 3-year joint MBA/JD program at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1993, after earning both a Master of Business Administration in Finance from The Wharton School and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, she passed the Pennsylvania Bar Exam and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Birgitte was then accepted into the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General's Corps.

Upon completing Commissioned Officer Training and receiving her commission as a First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, she went through the Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course. Afterwards, Birgitte was assigned as an assistant staff judge advocate to the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. Six months later, she was promoted to Captain. In 1996, Birgitte married Philip Christianson, a British economist.

In 1997, she left the U.S. Air Force after four years of service and returned to Erie with her husband, who took a position at a local investment bank. Birgitte then applied to join the United States Attorney's Office. Upon successfully completing the entire application process, she was hired and joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania as an assistant U.S. attorney. In 1999, Birgitte gave birth to her daughter, Laura. Later that year, she decided to run for Congress as a candidate for the newly-formed third party, the Moderate Party.

Birgitte was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 2000 by the voters of Pennsylvania's 3rd congressional district. During her first term as a congresswoman, she served on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the House Committee on the Judiciary. Birgitte was re-elected in 2002 and during her second term in Congress, she was assigned to the powerful House Committee on Ways and Means. In early 2004, she gave birth to her son, Magnus. Later that year, Birgitte was re-elected to Congress for a third term.

In February 2005, she announced that she would not seek a fourth term in the House of Representatives in the 2006 election, but instead would run for the United States Senate. Birgitte narrowly won the Moderate Party primary over businessman Nate Buch on May 16, 2006 and in close race, defeated Democratic congresswoman Anne Linden and Republican congressman Benedict Farmer on November 7, 2006. She was sworn in as a U.S. Senator on January 3, 2007, as one of many Moderate Party politicians elected in the 2006 elections. As a Senator, Birgitte served on the Senate Budget Committee, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. In the fall of 2007, her husband began working as a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

On March 28, 2011, Birgitte announced that she was forming a presidential exploratory committee. She officially announced her candidacy for the Moderate Party nomination for the presidency on April 25, 2011. On May 8, 2012, Birgitte secured the nominating threshold of delegates to become the Moderate Party's presumptive nominee with her victory in the North Carolina presidential primary. On August 15, 2012, she announced the selection of Moderate Party Governor of Florida Jacob Kruse, as her vice-presidential running mate.

On August 23, 2012, Birgitte formally accepted the Moderate Party's nomination at the 2012 Moderate National Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. On Tuesday, November 6, 2012, she was elected 45th president of the United States, beating incumbent Republican President Lawrence Hesselboe and Democratic Senator Michael Laugesen. Birgitte Nyborg was officially sworn into the presidency by Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts on January 20, 2013 and then formally inaugurated on January 21, 2013.

Note

 * A version of this character appeared on the Danish television series Borgen.