Category: State Senator / page 3

Virginia Foxx
Virginia Foxx


Virginia Foxx assumed office in January 2005, representing North Carolina's 5th District in the United States House of Representatives. Foxx was born June 29, 1943, in Bronx, New York. She received her bachelor's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her master's and doctoral degrees at the University of North Carolina in Greensboro. Foxx served as a research assistant at UNC and as an English professor and in university administration at Appalachian State University. From 1987 to 1994, she served as Mayland Community College president. She […]
Sylvia Garcia
Sylvia Garcia


Sylvia Garcia assumed office as U.S. representative for Texas's 29th Congressional District on Jan. 3, 2019. She and Veronica Escobar, U.S. representative for Texas's 16th Congressional District, are the first Hispanic women to represent Texas in the U.S. House. Garcia was born September 6, 1950, in Palito Blanco, Texas. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in social work from Texas Women's University, she worked as a social worker. She later received a Doctor of Jurisprudence from Texas Southern University. In the early 1980s, Houston Mayor Kathryn Whitmire appointed Garcia as […]
Kyle Evans Gay
Kyle Evans Gay


Kyle Evans Gay assumed office as lieutenant governor of Delaware on January 21, 2025. She represented District 5 as a member of the Delaware State Senate from 2021-2025. Gay was born in Wilmington, Delaware and grew up in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in international relations and history from Brown University and 2008 and a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University in 2012. Gay began her career in Delaware’s Department of Justice, working as a deputy attorney general. She then clerked in the Delaware Superior Court before […]
Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords


Gabrielle Giffords assumed office in January 2007, representing Arizona's 8th District in the United States House of Representatives until January 2012. Giffords is the third woman elected from Arizona to serve in the United States Congress. Giffords was born June 8, 1970, in Tucson, Arizona. In 1993, she completed her B.A. in sociology and Latin American history at Scripps College in California. From 1993 to 1994, she studied in Chihuahua, Mexico, as a Fulbright Scholar. After returning to the United States, Gifford studied at Cornell University, completing her master's degree […]
Kay Hagan
Kay Hagan


Kay Hagan served in the U.S. Senate representing North Carolina from 2009 to 2015. Hagan was born on May 26, 1953, in Shelby, North Carolina. After the family moved to Lakeland, Florida, her father later served as the mayor of Lakeland. Hagan's mother was the sister of Lawton M. Chiles, Jr., who represented Florida in the U.S. Senate from 1971 to 1989 and served as the state’s governor from 1991-1998. Hagan earned a B.A. in American Studies from Florida State University in 1975 and a J.D. from Wake Forest University […]
Bethany Hall-Long
Bethany Hall-Long


Bethany Hall-Long assumed office as the lieutenant governor of Delaware on January 17, 2017. She is running for governor in the 2024 election. Hall-Long was born on November 12, 1963, in Sussex County, Delaware. She earned her Bachelor's of Science in nursing from Thomas Jefferson University, her Master of Science in nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina, and her doctorate in nursing and public policy from George Mason University. Prior to being elected lieutenant governor, Hall-Long served in the Delaware Senate from 2009 to 2017 representing District 10. […]
Debbie Halvorson
Debbie Halvorson


Deborah "Debbie" Halvorson represented Illinois' 11th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 2009 until 2011. Halvorson was born March 1, 1958, in Chicago Heights, Illinois. She served in the Illinois State Senate from 1997 to 2009, and in 2005 was elected as the first female majority leader of the Illinois State Senate. While serving in the state Senate, Halvorson completed her Bachelor of Arts and her master's in communication, with degrees from Robert Morris College, Prairie State College, and Governors State University. For information on Halvorson's […]
Colleen Hanabusa
Colleen Hanabusa


Colleen Hanabusa represented Hawaii's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. She had not run for re-election in 2014, instead choosing to run for the U.S. Senate but losing that race in a close primary. In November 2016, she won a special election to fill the remaining term of the late Rep. Mark Takai, who had won her old seat in the 1st District but passed away in July 2016, and also won the general election for that seat. […]
Rita Hart
Rita Hart


Rita Hart served in the Iowa State Senate from 2013-2019. In January 2023, Hart was elected chair of the Iowa Democratic Party. Hart was born in 1956 in Charles City, Iowa. She earned an Associate of Arts degree from North Iowa Area Community College, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Iowa. She worked as a middle school and high school English teacher for more than 20 years. Hart was the 2018 Democratic nominee for Iowa's lieutenant […]
Ghazala Hashmi
Ghazala Hashmi
Lieutenant Governor

Ghazala Hashmi served as a state senator in Virginia for two terms. In January 2026, she will assume the role of Virginia Lieutenant Governor. Notably, Hashmi is the first Muslim woman to hold a state-wide office in the United States. Hashmi, born in 1964 in India and raised in Georgia, first completed her B.A. in english at Georgia Southern University. Following, she pursued a PhD in english from Emory University and then began a 25-year career as a professor and college administrator. In 2019, Hashmi won her campaign for the […]