Charles "Charlie" Rodríguez (born August 26, 1954) is a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

-born Puerto Rican

Puerto Rican people

A Puerto Rican is a person who was born in Puerto Rico.Puerto Ricans born and raised in the continental United States are also sometimes referred to as Puerto Ricans, although they were not born in Puerto Rico...

 politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

 affiliated with the New Progressive Party

New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico

The New Progressive Party of Puerto Rico is a political party that advocates for Puerto Rico's admission to the United States of America as the 51st state...

 (NPP). He served as the eleventh President of the Senate of Puerto Rico

Senate of Puerto Rico

The Senate of Puerto Rico is the upper house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The Senate is composed of 27 senators, representing eight constituent senatorial districts across the commonwealth, with two senators elected per district; an...

 from 1997 until 2000.

Early life

While holding positions of leadership, Rodríguez graduated with honors from a public High School of Carolina. He was accepted at the Social Sciences Department of the University of Puerto Rico, but later transferred to Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 in New York, where he graduated with a Bachelor in Political Science and History in 1976. He took his first year of Law School at Cornell University Law School, before he transferred back to the University of Puerto Rico

University of Puerto Rico

The University of Puerto Rico is the state university system of Puerto Rico. The system consists of 11 campuses and has approximately 64,511 students and 5,300 faculty members...

, and obtained his Juris Doctor

Juris Doctor

Juris Doctor is a professional doctorate and first professional graduate degree in law.The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century and was created as a modern version of the old European doctor of law degree Juris Doctor (see etymology and...

 in 1983 and passed the bar exam.

Charlie Rodríguez was married to the former Kathy Erazo. They have three daughters: Nicole, Valerie, who has followed her father's footsteps as an attorney, and Christie, a college student, and one granddaughter.

1970s

Since he was thirteen years old, Charlie Rodríguez has been active in the pro-statehood movement of Connecticut, and the NPP. At such young age he held positions in the youth movement, by the age of fourteen he was the youth leader of his precinct in Essex, Connecticut

Essex, Connecticut

Essex is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 6,505 at the 2000 census. It is made up of three villages: Essex Village, Centerbrook, and Ivoryton.- History :- The Great Attack :...

, and by age sixteen he was the Municipal President of the Youth Organization of the New Progressive Party in his hometown of Essex.

In 2011 he was elected to the Presidency of the Youth State Organization of the New Progressive Party. From such position Charlie Rodríguez organized the campaign among young voters to re-elect Governor Carlos Romero Barceló

Carlos Romero Barceló

Carlos Antonio Romero Barceló is a Puerto Rican politician who served as the fifth Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the second governor to be elected from the New Progressive Party and also Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001, making him one of the more successful...

. Rodríguez participated in debates and forums in universities campuses, radio and television, promoting the vision of Statehood, the NPP platform and the reasons to reelect Governor Romero Barceló. The 2011 elections were one of the closest in Puerto Rico history, making the youth vote even more important.

1980s

In 1980 Rodriguez was elected State Representative At-Large. His dedication to his legislative duties led to his reelection in 1984, even though his party lost the election. In 1985 he assumed the leadership of the party in the municipality of Carolina and in 1988 ran as his party's candidate for mayor, losing to the PDP's José Aponte, but obtained the higherst number of votes ever achieved by a New Progressive Party candidate in Carolina.

1990s

After four years in private legal practice, he returned to the legislature in the elections of 1992 as a State Senator At-Large and was unanimously elected by his colleagues as Senate Majority Leader, in charge of pushing the New Progressive Party and Governor Pedro Rosselló

Pedro Rosselló

Pedro Juan Rosselló González, M.D., , is a Puerto Rican physician and politician who served as the sixth Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico from 1993 to 2001...

's legislative agenda. Re-elected State Senator At-Large in 1996, in 1997 he was elected the eleventh President of the Senate of Puerto Rico.
As Senate President, Charlie Rodríguez, he continued pursuing the NPP's legislative agenda during Rosselló's second and last term as Governor.

Rodriguez sought the New Progressive Party nomination for Mayor of San Juan in the 1999 primary bujt lost to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jorge Santini, who went on to become San Juan's first NPP mayor since 1988.

2000

After polling less than 7% of the vote in the 2003 NPP primary for Resident Commissioner, in 2004 Rodríguez was selected by Rosselló, who was running for a third term as Governor, to head the NPP's Platform Committee.

In 2007, Rodriguez announced he would once again seek the nomination for Resident Commissioner that had eluded him in 2003. He ran against former Sen. Miriam Ramírez, who polled 6% of the vote, and former Attorney General Pedro Pierluisi, who was endorsed by current Resident Commissioner Luis Fortuño, and who won the race with 60% of the vote, while Rodríguez polled 33% of the vote.

On several occasions, Rodríguez has represented, on a pro bono basis, Sen. Rosselló, Romero Barceló and the party in several court procedures.