42 Facts About Leslie Rutledge

Leslie Carol Rutledge was born on June 9,1976 and is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 21st lieutenant governor of Arkansas since 2023.

Leslie Rutledge was reelected as attorney general in 2018, and elected lieutenant governor in the 2022 after withdrawing from gubernatorial election and endorsing Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Leslie Rutledge was the first Republican and first woman elected attorney general for Arkansas, and is the first woman lieutenant governor of Arkansas.

Leslie Rutledge was born in Batesville, Arkansas, on June 9,1976.

Leslie Rutledge graduated from Southside High School, the University of Arkansas, and the William H Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Leslie Rutledge began her legal career as law clerk to the Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Josephine Hart, a family friend.

Leslie Rutledge worked on Hart's successful campaigns for election as associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Leslie Rutledge was hired as an attorney for the Division of Children and Family Services within the Arkansas Department of Human Services in October 2006, and resigned with immediate effect on December 3,2007.

Leslie Rutledge was a lawyer for Huckabee's unsuccessful 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, and campaigned for him in Iowa ahead of the caucus there.

Leslie Rutledge sought the Republican nomination for Attorney General of Arkansas in the 2014 election.

Leslie Rutledge faced fellow attorneys Patricia Nation and David Sterling.

Leslie Rutledge finished with a plurality in the May 2014 primary but finished with less than 50 percent of the vote.

Leslie Rutledge hence faced second-place finisher Sterling in a runoff election.

Leslie Rutledge protested but nevertheless re-registered to vote in Pulaski County.

Leslie Rutledge defended the state's law, opposed the local governments' ordinances, and appealed a ruling by a circuit judge that the Fayetteville ordinance did not violate state law.

The Arkansas Supreme Court, in decisions in 2017 and 2018, sided with Leslie Rutledge, ruling that the local anti-discrimination ordinance was void.

Leslie Rutledge defended Arkansas House Bill 1570, a law enacted by the Arkansas Legislature in 2021 that banned gender-affirming care for minors.

The law was enacted in 2021 amid an anti-transgender movement; in the subsequent court challenge, Leslie Rutledge defended the law.

Leslie Rutledge was interviewed on The Problem with Jon Stewart about the law, which the federal courts blocked.

In July 2017, Leslie Rutledge joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as nine other Republican state attorneys general and Republican Idaho Governor Butch Otter, in threatening the Donald 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.

Leslie Rutledge was a speaker at the 2018 CPAC in Maryland; in her speech, Leslie Rutledge introduced herself as a "Christian, pro-life, gun-carrying conservative woman" and cited the Bible as a reason to limit immigration, mentioning the construction of city walls by Nehemiah referenced in the Book of Nehemiah.

In June 2017, Leslie Rutledge again rejected a proposed state constitutional amendment to legalize casino gambling.

Leslie Rutledge defended an Arkansas law that regulated pharmacy benefit managers.

Leslie Rutledge celebrated the ruling and, under the 2019 law, she signed the formal certification that Roe had been overturned, implementing the abortion ban.

In 2022, after President Joe Biden took executive action to forgiving a portion of student loan debt, Rutledge joined a lawsuit brought by five other Republican state attorneys general.

Leslie Rutledge was a campaign surrogate for Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

In November 2016, Leslie Rutledge was appointed to the executive committee of the Republican Attorneys General Association; she became the group's vice chairwoman the following year.

In December 2020, after the electoral college had already voted, Rutledge was one of 18 Republican state attorneys general who filed a failed lawsuit, Texas v Pennsylvania, that sought to nullify the election outcome in four key states won by Biden and thus keep Trump in power.

Leslie Rutledge did not publicly acknowledge the legitimacy of Biden's election victory until February 2021, after he had already taken office.

The complaint said that, by advancing false and frivolous claims to undermine the election result, Leslie Rutledge violated the rules of professional conduct governing lawyers.

Leslie Rutledge denied wrongdoing, framing the ethics complaint as a "political attack" against her.

The public relations ads, in which Leslie Rutledge appeared on camera discussing vaping and other issues, were seen as a precursor to a likely bid for governor.

Leslie Rutledge's office spent $2.2 million on radio and television ads in fiscal year 2020, nearly $1 million in fiscal year 2021, and $3.28 million in fiscal year 2022.

In July 2020, Leslie Rutledge removed her name, image and voice from the AG Office television ads.

In January 2021, eight Arkansans filed a taxpayers' suit, alleging that Leslie Rutledge illegally spent public money to benefit Trump and herself politically through ad funding and through her involvement in out-of-state lawsuits, such as seeking to intervene in suits involving the National Rifle Association of America in Texas and New York.

Leslie Rutledge denied the allegations; a state judge denied her motion to dismiss the suit in September 2021.

Leslie Rutledge defended the state's laws, called the trial court's decision "erroneous," and appealed the ruling.

In July 2020, Leslie Rutledge announced her candidacy for the Republican nomination for Arkansas governor in 2022.

Leslie Rutledge defeated Democrat Kelly Krout in the November 8,2022, general election; in the same election, Sanders, a fellow Republican, was elected governor.

Leslie Rutledge took office as lieutenant governor on January 10,2023.

In testimony before the state legislature's Joint Budget Committee personnel subcommittee, Griffin reported that his office determined that Leslie Rutledge had exceeded the $25 million-per-fiscal year limit on spending from the proceeds of lawsuit settlement fees, exceeding the limit by some $11.1 million in fiscal year 2023, before Griffin became AG.

In July 2018, Leslie Rutledge gave birth to a daughter, becoming the first statewide Arkansas elected official to give birth while holding office.