10 things about Melissa Bean
1. Bean was born Jan. 22, 1962, in Chicago.
2. Her father, a World War II Marine raider, owned a business that designed and built conveyor belts.
3. Entrepreneurship runs in her family. She and her three younger siblings all own or manage businesses.
4. Bean spent 20 years managing businesses before starting in 1995 her own consulting firm, which she ran for nine years.
5. She is Serbian Orthodox.
6. She often describes herself as a "typical soccer mom."
7. On the campaign trail, she likes to have fun with her last name. She asks campaign donors to give money by asking them to "fill" a jar of jellybeans; she hands out bags of jellybeans to voters so they don't forget her name.
8. She got her bachelor's degree in political science in 2002 by taking night classes at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
9. She was a registered Republican when she began volunteering for campaigns in the 1990s.
10. She ran against Phil Crane unsuccessfully in 2002 before defeating him in 2004.
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