74 Facts About Mary Fallin

Mary Fallin is an American politician who served as the 27th governor of Oklahoma from 2011 to 2019.

Mary Fallin is the first and so far only woman to be elected governor of Oklahoma.

Mary Fallin was the first woman to represent Oklahoma in Congress since Alice Mary Robertson in 1920.

Mary Fallin served two terms in the Oklahoma House, representing a district in Oklahoma City, from 1990 to 1995.

In 1994, Mary Fallin was elected to serve as the 14th lieutenant governor of Oklahoma; being elected to a total of three terms, she served under two different governors from 1995 to 2007.

Fallin became the first woman elected to Congress from Oklahoma since 1920, when Alice Mary Robertson became Oklahoma's first woman to be elected to Congress.

Mary Fallin won reelection in 2014, defeating Oklahoma state representative Joe Dorman.

Term limits barred Mary Fallin from seeking a third term to the governorship that year; fellow Republican Kevin Stitt was elected to succeed her.

Mary Fallin graduated from Tecumseh High School and attended Oklahoma Baptist University, in Shawnee.

Mary Fallin holds a bachelor of science degree in human and environmental sciences, and family relations and child development from Oklahoma State University.

Mary Fallin has worked as marketing director for a Ski Lodge in Utah, and in Oklahoma was a commercial real estate broker.

Mary Fallin ran for the 85th district of the Oklahoma House of Representatives after incumbent Mike Hunter announced his retirement in December 1989.

Mary Fallin represented Oklahoma City in the House, and authored 16 bills that became law.

In 1992, Oklahoma became one of the first five states in the nation to enact anti-stalking legislation when Mary Fallin authored and introduced HB 2291, which made it illegal to stalk or harass people.

Mary Fallin was active with the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, and was recognized by ALEC as Legislator of the Year in 1993.

Mary Fallin faced two other candidates in the Republican primary.

Mary Fallin did well in the northwest region, the Oklahoma Panhandle, and her home Oklahoma County.

Mary Fallin won all but nine counties, all of which were located in the far eastern part of the state.

In 1995, Mary Fallin became the first woman and first Republican to be sworn in as lieutenant governor of Oklahoma, an office she would hold for 12 years.

Early in her tenure, the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, located in Oklahoma City, was bombed, killing 168 people in what became the worst case of domestic terrorism in United States history; Fallin led a task force to rebuild the childcare center that was lost in the attack.

Mary Fallin promoted Project Homesafe, a national initiative of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a firearms industry trade association, to distribute free cable gun locks to reduce the risk of accidental in-home shootings.

In 1998, Mary Fallin served as chairwoman of the National Lieutenant Governors Association.

Mary Fallin served as the national Chairwoman of the Aerospace States Association.

Mary Fallin decided not to seek re-election to a fourth term as lieutenant governor.

Mary Fallin considered running for governor and challenging incumbent Democrat Brad Henry, but decided against it given Henry's popularity as measured in polls at the time.

Fallin became the first woman elected to Congress from Oklahoma since 1920, when Alice Mary Robertson became Oklahoma's first woman to be elected to Congress.

Mary Fallin resigned her position as Lieutenant Governor on January 2,2007 in order to be sworn into Congress on January 4,2007.

Mary Fallin joined a group of 38 Republicans who opposed an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

However, Mary Fallin voted against the auto industry rescue plan of 2008.

Mary Fallin won the Republican nomination with 136,460 votes, ahead of her nearest challenger, State Senator Randy Brogdon, who received 98,159 votes.

Mary Fallin began her transition by holding a joint press conference with outgoing governor Brad Henry.

Mary Fallin named Devon Energy chairman and CEO Larry Nichols as the chairman of her transition team and outgoing Oklahoma Senate President pro tempore Glenn Coffee as the Transition's Co-Chairman.

Mary Fallin established her Governor's Taskforce on Economic Development to advise her on matters related to the economy.

Mary Fallin appointed Gary Sherrer as Oklahoma Secretary of the Environment, a position he previously held under Democratic governor David Walters; Tulsa city auditor Preston Doerflinger as Oklahoma Secretary of Finance and Revenue and director of the Oklahoma Office of State Finance; and state health commissioner Terry Cline as Oklahoma Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Mary Fallin appointed Dave Lopez Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce and Tourism and director of the Oklahoma Department of Commerce in 2011.

Mary Fallin named Lieutenant Governor Todd Lamb to her cabinet as Small Business Advocate.

Mary Fallin appointed former state senator James Williamson to replace Chance.

Under Mary Fallin, Oklahoma has pushed for increased use of lethal injection as a mode of execution, while refusing to release details of the new chemical concoctions used in these executions following chemical company Hospira's decision to stop producing sodium thiopental, which had previously been widely used.

Mary Fallin appointed a member of her staff to lead the investigation into the botched execution.

In 2016, Mary Fallin convened an Oklahoma Justice Reform Task Force to make various recommendations on criminal justice reform in Oklahoma, which has the second-highest incarceration rate among US states.

In 2017 Mary Fallin struggled to push further major criminal justice reform bills through the legislature.

The bills were bottled up in the House Judiciary-Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee under its chairman, state Representative Scott Biggs, which prompted Mary Fallin to criticized Biggs.

In 2017 Mary Fallin signed legislation establishing fines of at least $10,000 for protesters who trespass on critical infrastructure sites, or $100,000 and a 10-year prison sentence for protesters who "tamper" with such facilities.

Mary Fallin was a supporter of a controversial Ten Commandments monument that had been erected on the Oklahoma State Capitol grounds in 2012.

Mary Fallin called for a state constitutional amendment to restore the monument to the Capitol grounds.

In May 2016, the Republican National Committee announced that Mary Fallin would serve as co-chairwoman to the 2016 Republican National Convention's Committee on Resolutions, known as the Platform Committee.

In 2016, Mary Fallin ultimately secured a reduction in the state income tax from 5.25 percent to 5 percent, which would result in an annually loss of $147 million in revenue to the state when fully implemented.

In February 2016 at the opening of the Oklahoma Legislature's session, Mary Fallin proposed $200 million in increased taxes to deal with an anticipated budget shortfall of at least $900 million for fiscal year 2017, which Mary Fallin said was the largest budget hole in state history.

Mary Fallin proposed expanding state sales and use taxes to services and items delivered electronically such as music sold online, neither of which are currently taxed in Oklahoma.

Mary Fallin proposed eliminating some annual sales-tax exemptions and more than doubling the state cigarette tax, from $1.03 to $2.53 per pack.

Mary Fallin proposed reducing appropriations to most state agencies by 6 percent, with smaller cuts of 3 percent to certain core agencies.

In 2017, Mary Fallin pushed to expand the state sales tax to 164 services that are not currently taxed, in order to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in state revenue.

In return for imposing sales tax on these items, Mary Fallin proposed the elimination of the state sales tax on groceries, although local sales tax for groceries would remain.

In May 2017, Mary Fallin vetoed a bill to permit more high-interest payday loans in Oklahoma.

In May 2015, Mary Fallin signed into law a measure that tripled the mandatory waiting period in Oklahoma for an abortion, extending it to 72 hours.

In May 2016, Mary Fallin vetoed a bill passed by the Oklahoma State Legislature that would have made it a felony, punishable by up to three years in prison, to perform an abortion, except in instances to save the life of the mother.

In December 2016, Mary Fallin signed into law a bill to require all Oklahoma Department of Health-regulated entities, including restaurants, public buildings, hospitals, and small businesses, to install anti-abortion signs in their public restrooms by January 2018.

Mary Fallin was criticized for bias after ordering state-owned National Guard facilities to deny spousal benefits to all same-sex couples.

Mary Fallin took the position that such relationships were illegitimate under Oklahoma law.

Mary Fallin later backed down after US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel stated that Oklahoma would be in violation of federal law for refusing to recognize the relationships.

In 2015, Mary Fallin vetoed legislation that would have restricted businesses' ability to prohibit guns in parks, fairgrounds and recreational areas.

In 2018, Mary Fallin vetoed legislation to authorize adults to publicly carry guns without permit or training, prompting the NRA to criticize her.

Mary Fallin is part of a group of Republican governors who have said that they will refuse to comply with Environmental Protection Agency regulations to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.

In May 2015, Mary Fallin signed into law a measure prohibiting Oklahoma local governments from enacting local bans on oil and gas drilling.

In late January 2011, following a heated Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting, Mary Fallin proposed major changes to the Oklahoma State Department of Education's organization and structure.

Under Mary Fallin's proposed changes, the Board would be stripped of its administrative powers and those powers would be transferred solely to the state superintendent, thus reducing the board to more of an advisory committee to the superintendent as opposed to a government body of the department.

Mary Fallin was formerly a champion of the Common Core State Standards, but in June 2014 signed a bill dropping the standards.

Mary Fallin criticized "outside" groups that protested with Oklahoma teachers at Oklahoma State Capitol, referring to the National Education Association and West Virginia teachers.

In May 2015, Mary Fallin signed a bill for a $25 million bond proposal to complete the Native American Cultural Center and Museum, a project already underway.

In March 2017, Mary Fallin approved of the Shawnee Tribe's plan to build a $25 million casino close to Guymon in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

On July 11,2018, soon after the measure passed, Mary Fallin signed stringent new emergency rules adopted by the Oklahoma Board of Health to prohibit the sale of marijuana in smokeable form and to require that a pharmacist be on-site at dispensaries during operating hours.

Mary Fallin criticized proponents of State Question 788 for their support of a ballot measure with a 30-day timeframe for implementation, but said that "the state will carry out the responsibility of administering" the new marijuana regime.

Mary Fallin married her first husband, Joseph Mary Fallin, a dentist, in November 1984.

Mary Fallin filed for divorce in December 1998 following allegations of an affair with an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer.