Category: Lieutenant Governor

Jari Askins
Jari Askins


Jari Askins served as Oklahoma's 15th lieutenant governor from 2007 to 2011. Askins was born April 27, 1953, in Duncan, Oklahoma. She completed her Bachelor Arts in journalism from the University of Oklahoma in 1975. In 1980, she received her Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. Prior to serving as lieutenant governor, Askins served as the special district judge of Stephen County, Oklahoma, from 1982 to 1990. From 1991 to 1992, she served as the chair of the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, becoming the board's […]
Kathleen Blanco
Kathleen B Blanco


Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, Louisiana's 54th governor, served as the first female governor of Louisiana from 2004 to 2008. Before being elected governor, Blanco represented the people of Lafayette, Louisiana, for two terms as the first woman in state legislature. She also represented Louisiana as lieutenant governor for two terms (1996 to 2004) and as the first woman of the Louisiana Public Service Commission, where she served as a chairperson in 1993 and 1994. Born December 15, 1942, in New Iberia, Louisiana, Blanco attended Mount Carmel Academy, an all-girls' high school […]
Madeleine Bordallo
Madeleine Bordallo


Madeleine Z. Bordallo served as the delegate from U.S. territory of Guam to the U.S. House of Representatives from 2003 to 2019, the first woman to represent Guam in Congress. She lost her 2018 re-election bid in the Democratic primary. Bordallo was born in Graceville, Minnesota, on May 31, 1933, and moved to Guam after her father took a job with the Guam Department of Education. In the 1950s and 1960s, she worked for radio and television broadcaster KUAM, an NBC affiliate that was the first television station in Guam. […]
Jennifer Carroll
Jennifer Carroll


Jennifer Carroll, Florida's 18th lieutenant governor, served from January 2011 to March 2013. She is the state's first black American and first woman elected as lieutenant governor, and the first black person elected to statewide office in Florida since Reconstruction. Carroll was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies, on August 27, 1959. She immigrated to the United States when she was eight. Following her graduation from Uniondale High School in New York, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After 20 years of service, she retired as a lieutenant […]
Martha Collins
Martha Layne Collins


Martha Layne Collins served as governor of Kentucky from 1983 to 1987, the only woman to hold this position. Collins was born in Bagdad, Kentucky, on December 7, 1936. She graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1959 with a bachelor of science in home economics. After graduation, she worked as a school teacher. She and her husband become active in civic organizations, including the Jaycees, Jayceettes and the Young Democratic Couples Club. Collins was asked to co-chair Wendell Ford's gubernatorial campaign in the 6th District in 1971. When she […]
Suzanne Crouch
Suzanne Crouch


Suzanne Crouch has served as Indiana's lieutenant governor since January 2017. Crouch was born February 27, 1952. She received her bachelor’s degree in political science from Purdue University. Prior to election to her first office, she served four years as chairman of the Vanderburgh County Republican Central Committee. Before becoming lieutenant governor, Crouch served as Indiana state auditor from 2014 to 2017 and as a state representative from 2005 to 2014. In the House, she served as the vice chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and on the Public […]
Diane Denish
Diane Denish


Diane Denish served as New Mexico's lieutenant governor from 2003 to 2011, the first woman to hold that position in New Mexico. Denish was born March 7, 1949, in Hobbs, New Mexico, and received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of New Mexico in 1971. Prior to serving as lieutenant governor, Denish served as a member of the Board of Regents at New Mexico Tech University, as a chair of the New Mexico Commission on the Status of Women and as a member of the National Advisory Board of […]
Sue Ellspermann
Sue Ellspermann


Sue Ellspermann served as the lieutenant governor of Indiana from January 2013 to March 2016, when she resigned to pursue the presidency of Ivy Tech Community College. A 1978 graduate of Forest Park High School, Ellspermann earned a degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1982. After graduating, she worked in engineering and management at AC Spark Plug, Michelin and Frito-Lay. In 1986, Ellspermann and her family returned to Evansville, where she founded a consulting business, Ellspermann and Associates, Inc. While building her practice, Ellspermann completed a doctorate in […]
Mary Fallin
Mary Fallin


Mary Fallin served as Oklahoma's governor from 2011 to 2019, the state's first female governor. Fallin was born on December 9, 1954, in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. Both her mother and father served terms as mayor of Tecumseh. Fallin graduated in 1977 from Oklahoma State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in human and environmental sciences, and family relations and child development. After college, she worked for the Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation, Oklahoma Employment Security Commission and Oklahoma Office of Personnel Management, then held several positions in the private […]
Kim Guadagno
Kim Guadagno


Kim Guadagno, New Jersey's first lieutenant governor, was sworn into office January 19, 2010. She is concurrently the secretary of state of New Jersey. Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Guadagno graduated from Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, in 1980. She completed her Juris Doctorate from American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., in 1983. Guadagno began her public service as federal prosecutor with the Organized Crime and Racketeering Strike Force in Brooklyn, New York. When she married a native of New Jersey, she and her husband moved to New […]