Luis Fortuño (born October 31, 1960) is a lawyer and politician from Puerto Rico affiliated with the New Progressive Party and the United States Republican Party. He is the current Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico to the United States Congress.

Education

Fortuño graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and later received a law degree from the University of Virginia in 1985. During this period, Fortuño was a close collaborator to then Resident Commissioner of Puerto Rico Baltasar Corrada del Río. After graduation, he began working with the New Progressive Party in Puerto Rico.

Political career

Fortuño is a close collaborator of former Governor of Puerto Rico Pedro Rosselló. He was a senior advisor for his campaigns of 1992 and 1996. During Rosselló's tenure as governor, Fortuño held various postions in the govenor's cabinet, among them Secretary of Economic Development.

Fortuño decided to seek his party's nomination for the post of Resident Commissioner in the primaries of 2003. He was able to defeat veteran politicians during the primaries, among them former governor and former resident commisioner Carlos Romero Barceló.

He actively campaigned alongside Pedro Rosselló, who was seeking to return to the post of governor. He picked up momentum when he received the endorsement of Ed Gillespie, head of the Republican National Committee. On the elections of 2004, Fortuño was victorious over his main rival candidate Roberto Prats. However, his running-mate Rosselló lost his bid for the governor's seat by a mere 4,000 votes. This means that Fortuño will be Resident Commissioner under Aníbal Acevedo Vilá of the Popular Democratic Party. This will be the first time in Puerto Rican history that the governor of Puerto Rico and the resident commissioner are not from the same political party.

External links

• luisfortuno.net - official campaign website, in Spanish.