Senator Melinda K. Romero Donnelly is the youngest daughter of former Governor of Puerto Rico Carlos Romero Barceló and former First Lady of Puerto Rico Kate Donnelly, a trustee of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico.
Born to a Mayor of San Juan, great-granddaughter of Puerto Rico's first Senate President, Antonio R. Barceló, raised in the Governor's Mansion, accustomed to shuttling between Washington, DC and San Juan while her father served as Puerto Rico's non-voting delegate in Congress, politics has always been part of her life. Thus, it is not strange that Romero Donnelly served as a member of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico from 1997 to 2004, after having served as president of the New Progressive Party (NPP) Youth organization. As a state representative, she was a strong advocate of animal rights and a fiery supporter of statehood for Puerto Rico.
In 2004, for health reasons, she retired to private life, and remained a governmental affairs consultant and devoted mother of several children, until June 7, 2009, when she was elected in an NPP internal selection process to serve out a vacancy as an at-large member of the Senate of Puerto Rico. Sworn in on June 15, 2009 by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz in a ceremony in the Rotunda of the Capitol of Puerto Rico[1], she chairs the Senate Federal Affairs Committee.
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