Category: State Representative / page 11

Carla Nelson
Carla Nelson


Carla Nelson has served in the Minnesota State Senate since 2010. She was a Republican candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Minnesota's 1st Congressional District, but lost in the primary. Nelson was born in Webster City, Iowa, on May 22, 1957. She earned a Bachelor of Science in special education from Drake University and a Master in Education in teacher leadership from the University of Minneapolis. She started her career as a teacher in 1992 for the Rochester Public Schools and left in 2000. In 2005 she […]
Kristi Noem
Kristi Noem


Kristi Noem assumed office as secretary of homeland security on January 25, 2025. She previously served as governor of South Dakota from 2019-2025, the first woman to serve of governor of that state. Noem served as the U.S. representative for South Dakota's at-large congressional district from 2011-2019. Noem was born November 30, 1971, in South Dakota. While she was attending college at Northern State University in Aberdeen, Noem's father's death in a farming accident forced her to return to home to run the family's ranch. While serving in Congress, Noem […]
Sheila Oliver
Sheila Oliver


Sheila Oliver served as the lieutenant governor of New Jersey from 2018-2023, New Jersey's first Black lieutenant governor and the first woman of color elected to statewide office in the state. Oliver was born on July 14, 1952, in Newark, New Jersey. She graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in sociology from Lincoln University in 1974 and received her master's degree in planning and administration from Columbia University in 1976. Oliver served on the Board of Education of the East Orange (N.J.) School District from 1994 to […]
Ilhan Omar
Ilhan Omar


Ilhan Omar assumed office as U.S. representative for Minnesota's 5th Congressional District on Jan. 3, 2019. Omar, a Somali American, and Rashida Tlaib, U.S. representative for Michigan's 13th Congressional District and a Palestinian American, are the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Omar is the first Somali-American legislator elected to office in the United States. Omar was born in 1982 in Mogadishu, Somalia and was raised in Baydhabo, Somalia. In 1991, she and her family fled the civil war in Somalia, spending four years in a refugee camp in Kenya. […]
Mary Peltola
Mary Peltola


Mary Peltola is the representative for Alaska’s at-large congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives. On August 16, 2022, she won the special election for the seat following the death of Rep. Don Young, and then also won the general election on Nov. 8, 2022. Peltola, a Yup’ik Alaska Native, is first Alaska Native member of Congress and the first woman to represent Alaska in the House of Representatives. Peltola was born in Anchorage, Alaska on August 31, 1973 and raised on the Kuskokwim River in Kwethluk, Tuntutuliak, Platinum, […]
Beverly E Perdue
Beverly E Perdue


Beverly Perdue served as governor of North Carolina from 2009-2013, the state's first female governor. Perdue was born January 14, 1947, in Grundy, Virginia. She received a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Kentucky in 1969 and her M.Ed. in community college administration (1974) and her Ph.D. in education administration (1976) from the University of Florida. Before entering politics, Perdue worked as a teacher and a health care consultant. Perdue served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1987-1991 and the North Carolina Senate from 1991-2001, […]
Karyn Polito
Karyn Polito


Karyn Polito served as the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts from 2015-2023. Polito was born on Nov. 11, 1966, in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. She received her Bachelor of Science in 1988 from Boston College and her Juris Doctor from the New England School of Law shortly after. Before entering the public sector, Polito owned and operated a commercial real estate development firm. Her political career began in local government, serving as a member of the Shrewsbury Board of Selectmen and the State Lottery Commission. In 2000, she was elected to the Massachusetts […]
Michele Reagan
Michele Reagan


Michele Reagan has served as a justice of the peace for the Maricopa County McDowell Mountain Precinct in Arizona since 2021. Reagan was born on October 13, 1969, in Rockford, Illinois, and graduated from Illinois State University. She moved to Arizona in 1991 with her family. Reagan was elected to the Arizona State House in 2002, where she served until 2010 when she was elected to the Arizona State Senate. She served as Arizona’s secretary of state from 2015-2019, losing in the 2018 primary election.
M. Jodi Rell
M. Jodi Rell


M. Jodi Rell served as governor of Connecticut from 2004-2011, the state's second female governor and its first female Republican governor. Rell was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on June 16, 1946. She attended Old Dominion University, but left in 1967 to marry U.S. Navy Pilot Lou Rell. She continued her education in 1969 at Western Connecticut State University, but did not graduate. Before her term as governor, Rell served as lieutenant governor from 1995-2004 and in the state House of Representatives from 1985-1995. While in the state house, Rell served […]
Laura Richardson
Laura Richardson


Laura Richardson represented California's 37th District in the United States House of Representatives from August 2007 to January 2013. Richardson was born April 14, 1962, in Los Angeles, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1984 and her Master of Business Administration from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California, in 1996. From 2000 to 2006, Richardson served as a member on the Long Beach, California City Council. Following her time on city council, Richardson served as a member of […]