Category: State Senator / page 6

Erin Murphy
Erin Murphy


Erin Murphy assumed office in the Minnesota State Senate on January 5, 2021. She previously served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2007 to 2019. She was a 2018 Democratic candidate for governor of Minnesota, but lost in the primary. Murphy was born March 13, 1960. She received a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh in 1984 and her Master of Arts in organizational leadership in health care at the College of St. Catherine in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 2005. She attended the Humphrey Institute […]
Patty Murray
Patty Murray


Patty Murray assumed office as Washington's United States senator in January 1993, becoming the state's first female senator. Murray was also the first female chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the first female chair of the Senate Budget Committee. On Jan. 3, 2023, Murray became the first woman to be elected Senate president pro tempore, placing her third in the line of presidential succession. Murray was born October 11, 1950, in Bothell, Washington. She graduated from Washington State University in 1972 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in […]
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 […]
Sandra Day O’Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor


Sandra Day O'Connor served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from September 25, 1981, until her retirement in 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, she was the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. O'Connor was born on March 26, 1930, in El Paso, Texas. She received her B.A. in economics in 1950 and her LL.B. in 1952 from Stanford University. She worked as a deputy county attorney in San Mateo, California from 1952-1953. She then served as a civilian attorney for Quartermaster Market […]
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, […]
Chellie Pingree
Chellie M Pingree


Chellie M. Pingree assumed office in January 2009, representing Maine's 1st District in the United States House of Representatives, the first woman elected to Congress from that district. Pingree was born April 2, 1955, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She attended the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine. She completed her Bachelor of Arts from the College of Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 1979. Prior to serving in Congress, Pingree served as a member of the North Haven, Maine, board of assessors (1981-1987) and as chairwoman (1982-1983). She also served […]
Yvonne Prettner Solon
Yvonne Prettner Solon


Yvonne Prettner Solon served as Minnesota's lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2015. Prettner Solon was the 6th consecutive woman to serve as Minnesota's lieutenant governor. Prettner Solon was born February 3, 1946, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She received her Bachelor of Science degree and her Master of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth. Prior to being elected as lieutenant governor, Prettner Solon served in the Minnesota State Senate from 2002 to 2011, representing the 7th District of Minnesota. While in Senate, Solon was a member of the Senate's Capital […]
Jane Raybould
Jane Raybould


Jane Raybould assumed office in the Nebraska State Senate on January 4, 2023. Raybould was the 2018 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate for Nebraska, losing to incumbent Deb Fischer. Raybould was born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska. She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Creighton University and a Master of Arts from Georgetown. She is vice president and director of buildings and equipment for B&R Stores Inc,, her family's business. Raybould's political career started in small civic leadership positions such as the board member of the Lincoln Chamber of […]
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.
Kim Reynolds
Kim Reynolds


Kim Reynolds became the first woman to serve as governor of Iowa on May 24, 2017, when she replaced Governor Terry Branstad after he stepped down to become U.S. ambassador to China. Previously, Reynolds had served as the lieutenant governor of Iowa from 2011-2017. On Nov. 6, 2018, she won the election for governor, Iowa's first elected female governor. Reynolds was born on August 4, 1959, in Truro, Iowa, and grew up in St. Charles, Iowa. In 2016, while serving as lieutenant governor, she received a Bachelor of Liberal Studies […]