Leslie Rutledge (born June 9, 1976) is an American lawyer and politician from the U.S. State of Arkansas. A member of the Republican Party, she is the current Attorney General of Arkansas, a position she has held since January 13, 2015.
Video Leslie Rutledge
Early life and career
A a native of Batesville in Independence County, Arkansas, Rutledge is a graduate of Southside High School, the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She began her legal career as clerk to the Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Josephine Hart, since associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court. She was appointed deputy counsel for Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and later served as Legal Counsel on Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign. She has also been a deputy prosecuting attorney in Lonoke County and in subsequent service as attorney for the State of Arkansas's Division of Children and Family Services. She served as deputy counsel at the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee before she was named counsel for the Republican National Committee. Prior to her election as attorney general, Rutledge founded and practiced law at The Rutledge Firm, PLLC.
Maps Leslie Rutledge
Attorney General of Arkansas
Rutledge sought the Republican nomination for Attorney General of Arkansas in the 2014 election. She faced fellow attorneys Patricia Nation and David Sterling. Rutledge finished with a plurality in the primary but finished with less than 50 percent of the vote. She hence faced second-place finisher David Sterling in a runoff election. Nation endorsed Rutledge, and she defeated Sterling.
In September 2014, County Clerk Larry Crane of Pulaski County cancelled Rutledge's voter registration when he discovered that Rutledge had registered to vote in Washington, D.C. She re-registered in Pulaski County.
Notably, during the 2014 AETN Televised Debate, Leslie Rutledge compared smart phones to "the devil". https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lg5h1Av-RcQ
Rutledge defeated Democratic Party nominee Nate Steel, a member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, and Libertarian Party nominee Aaron Cash, in the general election. She is the first Republican and woman thus far to have been elected Attorney General of Arkansas.
In 2016, Rutledge stated that she would appeal a ruling supporting LGBT anti-discrimination laws enacted in Fayetteville, Arkansas, that is in opposition to a state law prohibiting these ordinances.
In July 2017, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of Republican Attorneys General from nine other states, including Rutledge, plus Idaho Governor Butch Otter, in threatening the Donald J. Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by president Barack Obama. Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery, III subsequently reversed his position and withdrew his participation from the proposed suit on August 31. Slatery went further to urge passage of the DREAM Act. The other Attorneys General who joined in making the threats against Trump included Steve Marshall of Alabama, Lawrence Wasden of Idaho, Derek Schmidt of Kansas, Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Doug Peterson of Nebraska, Alan Wilson of South Carolina, and Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia.
In June 2017, Rutledge again rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling in the state. She rejected the proposal by Barry Emigh of Hot Springs, writing that the proposed popular name and ballot title are "misleading and wholly deficient."
Personal life
Rutledge met Boyce Johnson, a farmer from Marion in Crittenden County in eastern Arkansas, at a convention for the American Farm Bureau Federation. The couple wed in December 2015. On 3 April 2018, Rutledge announced via Twitter that she and Johnson were expecting their first child.
Electoral history
See also
- List of female state attorneys-general in the United States
References
External links
- Profile at Project Vote Smart
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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