Nancy Hollister | |
|---|---|
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| Member of theOhio House of Representatives | |
| In office January 11, 1999 – December 31, 2004 | |
| Preceded by | Tom Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Jennifer Garrison |
| 66thGovernor of Ohio | |
| In office December 31, 1998 – January 11, 1999 | |
| Preceded by | George Voinovich |
| Succeeded by | Bob Taft |
| 60thLieutenant Governor of Ohio | |
| In office January 9, 1995 – December 31, 1998 | |
| Governor | George Voinovich |
| Preceded by | Mike DeWine |
| Succeeded by | Maureen O'Connor |
| Mayor of Marietta | |
| In office 1984–1991 | |
| Preceded by | George Cranston |
| Succeeded by | Brooks Harper |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1949-05-22)May 22, 1949 (age 76) Terre Haute, Indiana, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Jeff Hollister |
| Education | Kent State University (attended) |
Nancy Elizabeth Hollister (néePutnam; born May 22, 1949) is an American politician from theU.S. state ofOhio. Hollister was the first and, to date, only femalegovernor of Ohio, serving briefly from December 1998 to January 1999.
Hollister attendedKent State University, and upon leaving college she became a housewife. She began her political career in the 1980s, becoming a member of the city council inMarietta and eventually winning the position of mayor. In1994,George Voinovich picked her as his candidate for Lieutenant Governor, and she served from 1995 to 1998. After a failed congressional bid in 1998, she succeeded Voinovich as Governor after he resigned to become a U.S. Senator. She served as Governor for 11 days, taking few political actions during her brief tenure.
Almost immediately after leaving the governorship, Hollister was appointed to a seat in theOhio House of Representatives. She won election to a full term in 2000 and 2002. In 2004, Hollister was defeated for re-election, attributed in part to her opposition to a constitutional amendment outlawing gay marriage.
Nancy Putnam was born inTerre Haute, Indiana, the daughter of Benjamin Hay Putnam Jr. (1925-2007) and Mary Elizabeth White (1926-1990).[1] Her parents had married in 1945 in West Virginia and had moved briefly back to Terre Haute (her mother's hometown) before moving toMarietta, Ohio, where her father's family resided. Her 6th great-grandfather was Revolutionary War GeneralIsrael Putnam. Her 8th great-grandmother was Bathsheba Folger Pope, an accuser of witches during theSalem Witch Trials. She has five siblings: Emily, Esther, Sarah and Benjamin Hay Putnam, III.
Hollister attendedKent State University majoring in communications. She was active in protests on campus, including protesting curfews placed on women students, a policy which would later be abolished. Hollister left to marry her husband Jeff, just two months before theKent State shootings.[2][3]
Nancy Hollister first entered public office when she was elected to theMarietta City Council in 1980.Hollister would serve on city council until being elected Mayor ofMarietta in 1984. As Mayor, Hollister worked to attract new businesses to the area, promote tourism, and secured funding for a new bridge across theOhio River.[4]
Since Hollister was a mayor inSoutheastern Ohio, GovernorGeorge Voinovich appointed Nancy Hollister as director of theGovernor's Office of Appalachia. In this position, Hollister was responsible for coordinating federal and state efforts to improve life for thetwenty-nine counties in Appalachia.[5]
In 1994, Hollister was selected by Voinovich as his running mate to replace incumbent lieutenant governorMike DeWine, who was running for the U.S. Senate. Her selection was thought to be beneficial for Voinovich, who had lost many counties downstate in 1990, and helpful for attracting women to the ticket.[6] Her election in November made her the first woman to be elected Lieutenant Governor.[7] Hollister would oversee several State and Local Government Commissions. These included theGovernor's Office of Appalachia, the Governor's Workforce Development Board, the Ohio Department of Agriculture, theOhio 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.[4] In 1998, she was inducted into the Ohio Women's Hall of Fame.[8]
In 1996, Hollister began raising funds for a bid forOhio Secretary of State in 1998.[9] A bid to succeed Voinovich as governor was seen as complicated by Voinovich's implicit endorsement ofBob Taft for governor.[10] In 1997, she began reconsidering and considered a bid for the6th congressional district against incumbent DemocratTed Strickland.[11] On July 1, 1997, Hollister announced her intent to run for congress.[12] In the primary, Hollister defeated former congressmanFrank Cremeans by 4 points.[13] She faced difficulty due to her moderate stances, but won out due to a divided conservative vote.[14] The race was viewed as highly competitive, in part due to the fact that the district had ousted an incumbent every year since 1990.[15] A big issue in the race was education, as the district contained some of the least affluent school districts in the state. Strickland supported more government funding in schools and hiring more teachers, whereas Hollister supported reducing the size of theDepartment of Education to give funds through block grants.[16] Hollister received the endorsements of George Voinovich andJohn Boehner,[15] and campaigned alongside House SpeakerNewt Gingrich andBob Dole.[17] On November 3, 1998, Hollister was defeated by Strickland 57% to 43%.[18]
On the same day Hollister was defeated in her bid for the 6th congressional district seat, GovernorGeorge Voinovich waselected to theUnited States Senate, andBob Taft waselected to the governorship.[18]
Voinovich resigned as governor on December 31, 1998 (so he could be sworn into the Senate three days later), and with that, Hollister became governor. Hollister became Ohio's first and to date onlyfemale governor. She only served 11 days in office - which would also make her Ohio's shortest-serving governor - as she was essentially finishing out Voinovich's term. During her transitory time in office, she signed a piece of legislation allowing farmers to sell land to local governments to ensure the land would remain farmland, and that local governments would pay the farmers dependent on land value.[19] She was succeeded by Taft, whose term officially began on January 11, 1999.[20]
Upon leaving the Governor's office, Hollister was appointed to theOhio House of Representatives for the 96th district, replacing outgoing Rep. Tom Johnson, who took a job with Governor Taft.[21] She ran for and was elected to the seat in 2000 and 2002, when she ran in the redrawn 93rd district.[22] During her tenure, Hollister introduced a bill allowing nurses to prescribe prescription drugs.[23] The bill went into effect in 2002.[24]
In her final run for office to date, Hollister was defeated byJennifer Garrison in 2004.[25] A key issue in the campaign was Hollister's opposition to a constitutional amendment to bansame-sex marriage.[26] Garrison – the Democrat – ran to the ideological right of Hollister on the state's same-sex marriage ban.[27]
She served on the board of trustees of theOhio History Connection between 2011 and 2016.[28]
In May 2016, she was appointed by Gov.John Kasich to fill a vacancy on thestate Board of Education.[29]
As of October 2020 she is an ad-hoc board member of the Friends of the Museums, which manages theCampus Martius Museum andOhio River Museum in Marietta.[30]
She married Jeffrey Lynn Hollister, her boyfriend since high school, on March 21, 1970.[31] They have five children: Jonathan Dunham Hollister (b. 1970), Jeremy Douglas Hollister (b. 1973), Justin Harrington Hollister (b. 1976), Emily Elizabeth Hollister (b. 1979) and Sarah Katherine Hollister (b. 1982).[32]
Voinovich, a Clevelander, is weak downstate; in 1990, he lost in ten of the twenty-nine counties in Appalachian Ohio. Hollister's presence on the ticket could help him where he needs it most. As a bonus, her presence might attract women and pro-choice voters who otherwise would not vote for Voinovich.
That political path was pretty much blocked by Secretary of State Bob Taft, an early and prolific money-raiser who became heir-apparent after bowing out to give Voinovich a clear shot in 1990.
Gov. Nancy Holster signed her first and probably only bill into law... This voluntary law allows farmers to sell the development rights of their land to local governments, so that the land is legally required to remain as farmland. Local governments pay the farmer the difference between the agricultural and development value of the land.
Taft succeeds Ohio's first woman governor Republican Nancy Hollister. She filled-in for 11 days after Republican George Voinovich who held the job for eight years left as newly elected US senator.
| Party political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Republican nominee forLieutenant Governor of Ohio 1994 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lieutenant Governor of Ohio 1995–1998 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor of Ohio 1998–1999 | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former Governor | Order of precedence of the United States | Succeeded byas Former Governor |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
