Karenna Gore Schiff

Karenna Aitcheson Gore was born in Nashville, Tennessee on August 6, 1973, to former Vice President of the United States Al Gore and author cum social activist Tipper Gore. She is the granddaughter of the former Tennessee senator, Al Gore Sr. She has three siblings, author and screenwriter Kristin Gore, Sarah Gore Maiani and Albert Gore. She went to Harvard University and received her B.A. in history and literature in 1995. She received her law degree from Columbia Law School in 2000 and later in 2013 she earned a Master of Arts degree from Union Theological Seminary.

Gore married physician Andrew Newman Schiff on July 12, 1997. The couple has three children together, Wyatt Gore Schiff, born in 1999, Anna Hunger Schiff, born in 2001, and Oscar Aitcheson Schiff, born in 2006. The couple separated in 2010 and later ended their marriage with a divorce.

While in college, Karenna Gore did internships as a journalist with WREG-TV and The Times-Picayune, and later she wrote columns for ‘Slate’ in Seattle as well as for ‘El Pais’ in Spain. After completing her law degree from the Columbia Law School in 2000, she joined the law firm ‘Simpson Thacher & Bartlett’ in New York City. However, she discontinued her association with the firm very soon and joined the non-profit sector.

Gore was influenced by her father and grandfather to work in the politics, though not as a politician. She became heavily involved in politics when her father Al Gore became the vice president under the US President Bill Clinton. She traveled a lot during his term and met with several people and gave speeches to voters.

Later, when her father himself ran for the presidency in 2000, she seconded his nomination at the Democratic National Convention and also became a star member of his campaign. She worked as her father’s trusted advisor and also brought powerful personalities like Naomi Wolf, a popular feminist and a well-known face among the progressive female fraternity, to join the consulting team. Unfortunately for her and her father, the campaign ended disastrously and Gore decided to leave politics for the time being.

In 2006, she published ‘Lighting the Way: Nine Women Who Shaped Modern America’, a book containing profiles of nine modern and influential American women who helped in shaping the country’s history. She later said in an interview that the book was a result of the “frustrating” campaign of her father running for the president and she wanted to make something “positive” out it.

Gore has always been vocal against the use of explicit song lyrics and has also worked to prevent the use of products which exploited Third World countries. She was part of the campaign against the Constitution pipeline (a fracked gas pipeline) which ran through New York state and also took part in the campaign against the construction of a pipeline in Boston. The said pipeline was supposed to carry fracked gas for the Houston-based Spectra Company, and she protested the matter along with 22 other protesters in Boston which resulted in an arrest for all the protestors.