Leslie Rutledge

Leslie Carol Rutledge (born June 9, 1976) is an American politician and lawyer. Since 2023, she has been the 21st lieutenant governor of Arkansas under Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She is a member of the Republican Party.

Rutledge was also the 56th attorney general of Arkansas from 2015 to 2023. She was the first woman and first  to be elected to the position of attorney general in the state's history. 

Personal life
Rutledge was born in Batesville, Arkansas. She studied at the University of Arkansas and at University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 2015, she married Boyce Johnson. They have one daughter.

Political career
Rutledge ran for the re-election to office of Attorney General against the Democratic nominee Mike Lee in 2018. She led with almost 62% of the vote and was re-elected.

During February 2021, Rutledge proposed a bill called the Gender Integrity Reinforcement Legislation for Sports Act which would ban transgender athletes from playing with the girls' sports teams in K–12 schools.

Rutledge described herself as a defender of the Second Amendment and of freedom of religion. She is also pro-life. Rutledge also opposes rights for lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender people. As the Arkansas Attorney General, Rutledge and her office filed notice was appealing the decision from a Washington County judge to deny the state's request for a preliminary injunction against Fayetteville's anti-discrimination ordinance.

Gubernatorial campaign
Rutledge and Sarah Huckabee Sanders started their campaigns to become the first female Governor of Arkansas in late 2020. Both Rutledge and Huckabee planned their runs in the 2022 election, scheduled to happen on November 8, 2022. However, Rutledge dropped out of the governor's race in November 2021 to run for lieutenant governor. Rutledge won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in May 2022.

References

Category:Republican Party (United States) politicians
Category:Lawyers from Arkansas
Category:Lieutenant Governors of Arkansas
Category:1976 births
Category:Living people