Mary Fallin

Mary Fallin
Fallin in 2015
27th Governor of Oklahoma
In office January 10, 2011 – January 14, 2019
Lieutenant	Todd Lamb
Preceded by	Brad Henry
Succeeded by	Kevin Stitt
Chairwoman of the National Governors Association
In office August 4, 2013 – July 13, 2014
Deputy	John Hickenlooper
Preceded by	Jack Markell
Succeeded by	John Hickenlooper
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 5th district
In office January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2011
Preceded by	Ernie Istook
Succeeded by	James Lankford
14th Lieutenant Governor of Oklahoma
In office January 9, 1995 – January 2, 2007
Governor	Frank Keating Brad Henry
Preceded by	Jack Mildren
Succeeded by	Jari Askins
Member of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from the 85th district
In office January 8, 1991 – January 9, 1995
Preceded by	Mike Hunter
Succeeded by	Odilia Dank
Personal details
Born	Mary Copeland (1954-12-09) December 9, 1954 (age 69) Warrensburg, Missouri, U.S.
Political party	Republican (1975–present)
Other political affiliations	Democratic (before 1975)
Spouses	Joseph Fallin ​ ​ (m. 1984; div. 1998)​ Wade Christensen ​ (m. 2009)​
Children	3 (with Fallin) 3 stepchildren (with Christensen)
Education	Oklahoma Baptist University Oklahoma State University, Stillwater (BS)
Signature

Mary Fallin (/ˈfælɪn/; née Copeland; born December 9, 1954)^[1] is an American politician who served as the 27th governor of Oklahoma from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, she was elected in 2010 and reelected in 2014. She is the first and so far only woman to be elected governor of Oklahoma. She was the first woman to represent Oklahoma in Congress since Alice Mary Robertson left office in 1923.

Beginning a career in politics, Fallin was elected to the Oklahoma House of Representatives in 1990. She served two terms in the Oklahoma House, representing a district in Oklahoma City, from 1990 to 1995. In 1994, 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. After seven-term Republican incumbent Ernest Istook announced that he would retire from his seat to run for governor, Fallin declared her candidacy for Oklahoma's 5th congressional district, where she was elected to two terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, serving from 2007 to 2011. Fallin became the first woman elected to Congress from Oklahoma since 1920, when Alice Mary Robertson became Oklahoma's first (and the nation's second) woman to be elected to Congress.

Fallin ran for Governor of Oklahoma in 2010. She defeated three other opponents with 54% of the vote in the Republican primary, and defeated the Democratic nominee, Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins, with 60% of the vote in the general election. She won reelection in 2014, defeating Oklahoma state representative Joe Dorman. Term limits barred Fallin from seeking a third term to the governorship in 2018; fellow Republican Kevin Stitt was elected to succeed her. In 2013 she visited the city of El Reno, OK to analyze tornado damage left by the 2013 El Reno tornado.^[2]