Category: State Secretary of State

Shenna Bellows
Shenna Bellows


Shenna Bellows assumed office as Maine’s first female Secretary of State on January 4, 2020. Bellows was born on March 23, 1975, in Greenfield, Mass. She graduated magna cum laude from Middlebury College in 1997, where she received highest honors for a thesis in economic and environmental sustainability. Bellows worked as a research associate at Economists Incorporated from 1997 to 1999, then served in the Peace Corps in Panama as a small-business development volunteer. She was then an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer in Nashville, Tenn., assisting a startup non-profit develop a […]
Jan Brewer
Jan Brewer


Janice K. Brewer assumed office as Arizona governor in January of 2009, after Governor Janet Napolitano resigned to accept an appointment as secretary of homeland security, and served as governor until 2015. Because Arizona state law limits office holders to two consecutive terms, regardless of whether they serve full or partial terms, she was ineligible to run for governor in 2014. Brewer was born on September 26, 1944, in Hollywood, California. She received her radiological technologist certification from Glendale Community College in Glendale, California. She moved to Arizona in 1970 […]
Katherine "Kate" Brown
Katherine "Kate" Brown


Katherine "Kate" Brown assumed office as governor of Oregon on Feb. 18, 2015, following the resignation of her predecessor due to a public corruption scandal. She won the election to serve the remaining two years of her predecessor's four-year term in November 2016 and was re-elected in November 2018. Before becoming governor, Brown had been Oregon's secretary of state since 2009. Because Oregon does not have a lieutenant governor, Brown was first in line to succeed the governor. Brown is the state's second female governor and the first openly bisexual […]
Ella T. Grasso
Ella T. Grasso


Ella T. Grasso served as governor of Connecticut from 1975 to 1980. She was the first woman governor of Connecticut and the first woman to be elected governor of a U.S. state without having been the spouse or widow of a former governor. Grasso was born on May 10, 1919, in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics and sociology in 1940 and master's degree in 1942, both from Mount Holyoke College. During World War II, she served as assistant director of research for the War Manpower […]
Alison Lundergan Grimes
Alison Lundergan Grimes


Alison Lundergan Grimes was the secretary of state of Kentucky from 2012 until 2020. She was the 2014 Democratic nominee the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Mitch McConnell, but lost to Sen. McConnell in the general election. Grimes was born November 23, 1978, in Maysville, Kentucky. Her father is Jerry Lundergan, a former Kentucky Democratic chairman and state representative. Grimes graduated from Rhodes College in 2001 with a degree in political science and a minor in history. She graduated cum laude from the Washington College of Law at American […]
Kim Guadagno
Kim Guadagno


Kim Guadagno, New Jersey's first lieutenant governor, was sworn into office January 19, 2010. She was concurrently the secretary of state of New Jersey. Guadagno held both positions until 2018. 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 […]
Karen Handel
Karen Handel


Karen Handel represented Georgia's 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 - 2019 and was the first Republican woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress from Georgia. Handel won a special election on June 20, 2017, to replace Tom Price, who was confirmed as United States secretary of health and human services for the Trump administration in February 2017. She lost her 2018 re-election bid. Handel was born April 18, 1962, in Washington, DC, and grew up in Maryland. She attended both Prince George's Community […]
Jane Dee Hull
Jane Dee Hull


Jane Dee Hull served as governor of Arizona from 1997-2003, the first woman to be elected governor of that state and the second to hold the office. Born on August 8, 1935, in Kansas City, Missouri, Hull earned a bachelor's degree in elementary education from the University of Kansas and a J.D. from Arizona State University. She worked as an elementary school teacher before entering politics. Hull served in the Arizona House of Representatives from 1979-1993, serving as the speaker of the House from 1989-1992. She served as secretary of […]
Terri Lynn Land
Terri Lynn Land


Terri Lynn Land is an at-large member of the Wayne State University Board of Governors. Land was born on June 30, 1958 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. During high school, she was a "scatter blitzer" for the Gerald Ford campaign, and in 1978 was one of the youngest attendees at the Republican State Convention. She received a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Hope College in Holland, Michigan. From 1992 to 2000, Land was the clerk of Kent County, the fourth largest county of Michigan. In 2000 she ran unsuccessfully […]
Candice Miller
Candice Miller


Candice Miller represented Michigan's 10th District in the United States House of Representatives from 2003 to 2017. Miller was born May 7, 1954, in Detroit, Michigan. She attended Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan. Prior to serving in Congress, Miller served as a trustee on the Harrison Township Board in Harrison Township, Michigan, from 1979 to 1980. From 1980 to 1992, she served as the Harrison Township supervisor, becoming the youngest supervisor and first woman elected to the position. She also served as treasurer of Macomb County, Michigan from […]