Researching Kristina Keneally

Keneally was born in the United States to an American father and an Australian mother. She grew up in Toledo, Ohio, and is a graduate of the University of Dayton. After marrying an Australian, Ben Keneally, she settled in Australia permanently and became a naturalised citizen in 2000. Keneally was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly seat of Heffron at the 2003 state election, succeeding Deirdre Grusovin after a controversial preselection process. After being re-elected to parliament at the 2007 state election, she became the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services and was subsequently appointed Minister for Planning by Premier Nathan Rees in 2008. She was also the state government's spokeswoman for World Youth Day 2008.

By December 2009, Keneally had emerged as the preferred leadership candidate of the Labor Right faction, and defeated incumbent Premier Nathan Rees (who had been in office for just 15 months) in a party room ballot, winning by 47 votes to 21. The Keneally Government went on to suffer a 16.5-point swing statewide at the 2011 state election – the biggest swing in Australian political history. She was replaced as leader of the Labor Party by John Robertson, who was elected unopposed, on 31 March 2011. She resigned from Parliament in June 2012.

In 2014, Keneally joined Sky News Live as a political commentator, later becoming co-host of To The Point. She took leave in November 2017 to stand as the Labor candidate for the Bennelong by-election, which she lost to previous member John Alexander. In February 2018 she was instead appointed to the Senate to fill a casual vacancy caused by Sam Dastyari's resignation. After the 2019 leadership election, Keneally was selected as deputy Senate leader in the shadow cabinet of new Labor leader Anthony Albanese. She was also given the portfolios of Home Affairs and Immigration and Citizenship.