Lieutenant Vacant Preceded by Mike DeWine Education Kent State University Governor George Voinovich Role American Politician | Succeeded by Bob Taft Name Nancy Hollister Preceded by George Voinovich Succeeded by Maureen O'Connor Party Republican Party | |
 | ||
Nancy Putnam Hollister (born May 22, 1949) is an American politician from the U.S. state of Ohio. Hollister was the first, and to date only, female Governor of Ohio, serving briefly from December 1998 to January 1999. She attended Kent State University, and upon leaving college she became a housewife. She began her political career in the 1980s. She is a member of the Republican Party.
Contents
- Political career 1980 1990
- Political career 1991 1994
- Lieutenant governor
- Governor of Ohio
- Politics 2000 present
- References
Political career (1980-1990)
Nancy Hollister first entered public office when she was elected to the Marietta City Council in 1980. Hollister would serve on city council until being elected Mayor of Marietta in 1984. As Mayor, Hollister worked to attract new businesses to the area, promote tourism, and secured funding for a new bridge across the Ohio River.
Political career (1991-1994)
Since Hollister was a mayor in Southeastern Ohio, Governor Voinovich appointed Nancy Hollister as director of the Governor's Office of Appalachia. In this position, Hollister would advise the Governor on how to improve the economy, and life, for twenty-nine counties.
Lieutenant governor
Hollister was elected Ohio's 60th Lieutenant Governor in 1994 to replace incumbent lieutenant governor Mike DeWine, who was elected to the U.S. Senate. Hollister would oversee several State and Local Government Commissions. These included the Governor's Office of Appalachia, the Governor's Workforce Development Board, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the Ohio Bureau of Employment Services, the Ohio School-to-Work Initiative, the Office of Housing and Community Partnership, the Ohio Coal Development Office, and the Ohio Farmland Preservation Task Force.
Governor of Ohio
On November 3, 1998 as part of that year's midterm election, Governor George Voinovich was elected to the United States Senate. On the same day, Hollister ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives, having defeated former Rep. Frank Cremeans for the Republican nomination, but she lost to Democrat (and future Governor) Ted Strickland.
Voinovich resigned as governor on December 31, 1998, and with that, Hollister became governor. Hollister became Ohio's first and to date only female governor. She only served 11 days in office, making her Ohio's shortest-serving governor, as she was finishing out Voinovich's term. She was succeeded by Bob Taft, who was elected governor during the same election cycle, but whose term didn't officially begin until January 11, 1999.
Politics (2000-present)
Upon leaving the Governor's office, Hollister was appointed to the Ohio House of Representatives, representing the 93rd district, in 1999. She ran for and was elected to the seat in 2000 and 2002. In her final run for office to date, Hollister was defeated by Jennifer Garrison in 2004.
A key issue in the campaign was Hollister's opposition to a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage. Garrison - the Democrat - ran to the ideological right of Hollister on the same-sex marriage ban which passed during the same 2004 election 61.71% to 38.29%.
She serves on the board of trustees of the Ohio History Connection, and is on the board of the Friends of the Museums, which manages the Campus Martius Museum and Ohio River Museum in Marietta.
In May 2016, she was appointed by Gov. John Kasich to fill a vacancy on the state Board of Education.