Origins and education Born in
Tecuci, Gorghiu completed secondary studies at
Vlaicu Vodă National College in
Curtea de Argeș in 1997. She then attended the Law and Administration Faculty of
Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University in
Bucharest, graduating in 2001. In 2002–2003, she took postgraduate courses at the
University of Bucharest's Law Faculty, and from 2004 to 2008 worked on a degree at the Economics, Law and Administration Faculty of the
University of Pitești. She holds a master's degree in Communications and Public Relations from the
National School of Administration and Political Science of Bucharest (2007). In 2006, she began working on a doctorate in Criminal Law at the law faculty of the
University of Iași; she was granted the degree in 2012. has held two elected offices. From 2004 to 2008, she was a local councillor on the
Sector 5 council in Bucharest. There, she served as vice president of the committee for investigating abuses and corruption and for petitions. She was also president of the committee of enquiry for verifying the amounts of money paid by the
Youth and Sport Ministry through documents signed by minister
Monica Iacob-Ridzi for organising the 2009 Youth Day festival. The committee's report, the findings of which were announced by Gorghiu in July 2009, declared that Ridzi had committed embezzlement and abused public office, and sought her indictment by prosecutors. When the minister resigned several days later, Gorghiu stated she was pleased but that the action should have come some time earlier. She was one of the Chamber's vice presidents from September to December 2012. Additionally, as a member of the joint committee tasked with revising the
constitution, she advocated that the
absentee ballot and a
voting age of sixteen be enshrined in the document. In 2013, she joined the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. For the second half of 2014, she was the PNL's spokeswoman. In December 2014, PNL president
Klaus Iohannis, previously
elected President of Romania, resigned from the party prior to taking office, as required under the constitution. Gorghiu ran to succeed him, earning his endorsement in the process. She was elected on a vote of 47 to 28, defeating
Ludovic Orban In addition to leading the PNL, she was also, alongside
Vasile Blaga, the co-president of a revamped PNL that is scheduled to formally merge with the
Democratic Liberal Party (PDL) in 2017. Following the PNL's defeat in the
2016 election, Gorghiu resigned as party leader. At the same time, she advanced to the Senate, winning a seat for Timiș County. After the
2020 election, she became one of that body's vice presidents. In June 2022, following the resignation of
Florin Cîțu, she became interim
Senate President, a position she held for nearly a year. ==Personal life==