From pollster to presidential counsellor, Kellyanne Conway heads to the White House

Hillary Clinton didn't become the first woman to win the White House this year, but Kellyanne Conway became the first female campaign manager to help get a U.S. president elected.

Conway's profile rose during the latter portions of the 2016 election when she became Donald Trump's third campaign manager.

On Thursday, Trump announced Conway would join his staff as a counsellor.

"In her position, Conway will continue her role as a close advisor to the president and will work with senior leadership to effectively message and execute the Administration's legislative priorities and actions," Trump's transition team said in a statement.

Throughout the campaign, she went on TV to put Trump's spin on the issues of the campaign. She became known for trying to rein-in Trump while also letting him keep his trademark personality.  

Her unique relationship with the president-elect has become, not completely accurate, fodder for late-night TV, especially Saturday Night Live.

Conway has been well-known in political circles for decades, as a pollster and Republican strategist. Her earliest public notoriety is likely as a panelist on Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect.  

Life before Trump

For two decades, Conway, who has a law degree from George Washington University, ran The Polling Company/WomanTrend in Washington, D.C., working with top Republicans and corporate clients.

Some of her previous political clients included 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich and vice-president elect Mike Pence.

One of her specialties was helping Republicans appeal to women voters and helping female Republicans create legislation for equal pay and child care, according to a piece in Time Magazine that ran in August. "She has thought more about the concerns of women than any other Republican I know," Gingrich told Time.

Targeting women voters became the subject of a book in 2005. Conway partnered with Democratic strategist Celinda Lake to write the book What Women Really Want, which looks at how women "are getting what they want and need by rejecting outdated traditions and expectations that no longer fit their reality," according to the book's synopsis.

When she became Trump's third campaign manager in August, she told Time getting the female vote is not about being a woman, it's about understanding women, a point she relied on during the campaign.

"Clinton runs around saying, 'I'll be the first female president.' Why isn't she at 70 per cent amongst women?" Conway told the magazine. "She's nowhere near there, and you know why? It's because women say, 'You share my gender, that's really fascinating, that's kind of cool, but do you share my vision, do you share my values?'"

Conway is the first woman to bring a Republican candidate to the White House. 

Conway and Trump

Conway was active in the 2016 Republican nomination campaign before joining Trump's team. She had been involved in a super PAC for Ted Cruz, who was battling Trump for the Republican nomination.

Conway first met Trump around 2001 when she moved into a condo in New York City's Trump World Tower, where she was on the condo board. She told the New Yorker Trump is "very involved in his condos."

Their political relationship started when Trump considered running for governor of New York in 2013 and she conducted a poll about the possibilities of that contest. Conway's data didn't show Trump would ultimately win, but that he could compete largely because he had the money, and New York loves "celebrity politicians," the New Yorker reported.

Conway became campaign manager in August, and one of her strategies was to not change him — which likely wouldn't have been successful anyway. 

"That's not going to happen, because he's a 70-year-old adult billionaire who has been on a top-rated TV show, had the No.1 book in the country, beat 16 people, got the record number of votes as the nominee. He actually knows something," Gingrich told the New Yorker.

As campaign manager, Conway was regularly on the front lines of Trump's sometimes controversial campaign. While Trump rarely spoke to the press, Conway would be on CNN or Fox News taking questions about Trump's remarks about women or a rigged system, and trying to turn the message back to his campaign ideas that were resonating with voters.

Initially, Conway didn't take a cabinet position because she says she had to weigh her family obligations.

Conway is married and has four children. As a young lawyer, her husband, George T. Conway III, was involved in legal challenges that allowed former president Bill Clinton to be sued — and later impeached — in the 1990s. The family lives in a $6-million home in New Jersey.

Conway turns 50 on inauguration day.