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Jodi Rell
Mary Carolyn Rell (née Reavis; June 16, 1946 – November 20, 2024), known as M. Jodi Rell, was an American politician who served as the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 to 2011. Rell also had served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004 under Governor John G. Rowland, and became governor after Rowland resigned from office. To date, Rell is the last Republican and last woman to serve as Governor of Connecticut.
Rell was Connecticut's second female governor, after Ella Grasso. She did not seek re-election in 2010 and left office in January 2011.
Rell was born Mary Carolyn Reavis in Norfolk, Virginia, the daughter of Foy and Benjamin Reavis. She attended Old Dominion University, but left in 1967 to marry Lou Rell, a U.S. Navy pilot. The couple first moved to New Jersey, where Lou Rell took a position as a commercial airline pilot with Trans World Airlines. The family then moved to a 19th-century farmhouse in Brookfield, Connecticut, in 1969. Jodi Rell later attended, but did not graduate from, Western Connecticut State University. She received honorary law doctorates from the University of Hartford in 2001 and the University of New Haven in 2004. In 2015, she received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Western Connecticut State University. In her early career, she tutored and did substitute work for the Hartford Public Schools.[citation needed]
Jodi Rell's political career began as a campaign worker for Connecticut state Rep. David Smith during several of his campaigns. Smith, a pilot for Eastern Airlines, declined to seek re-election to a 5th term in the Connecticut House of Representatives in the 1984 election. He encouraged Rell to enter the race to succeed him. Rell was elected in 1984, representing the 107th District in northwestern Fairfield County, centered on Brookfield. She served from 1985 to 1995.
She became lieutenant governor after the 1994 election as John Rowland's running mate and won re-election in 1998 and 2002, becoming governor in 2004 after Rowland resigned due to corruption.
In her first months in office, Rell had high approval ratings, with a December 2004 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll showing her at 80 percent, the highest rating ever measured by that poll for a governor in Connecticut. She announced in October 2005 she would seek a four-year term in 2006, and was nominated by the Republican Party in May 2006 to seek a full term of her own. Stamford businessman and former state representative Michael Fedele was nominated as her running mate as lieutenant governor.
Rell defeated her Democratic opponent, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. in the 2006 Connecticut gubernatorial election. She received approximately 710,000 votes, the highest total for any gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut history. She carried all but seven towns.
Governor Rell was one of many Republicans mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president in the 2008 presidential election. The presidential nominee John McCain chose Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate instead.
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Jodi Rell
Mary Carolyn Rell (née Reavis; June 16, 1946 – November 20, 2024), known as M. Jodi Rell, was an American politician who served as the 87th governor of Connecticut from 2004 to 2011. Rell also had served as the state's 105th lieutenant governor of Connecticut from 1995 to 2004 under Governor John G. Rowland, and became governor after Rowland resigned from office. To date, Rell is the last Republican and last woman to serve as Governor of Connecticut.
Rell was Connecticut's second female governor, after Ella Grasso. She did not seek re-election in 2010 and left office in January 2011.
Rell was born Mary Carolyn Reavis in Norfolk, Virginia, the daughter of Foy and Benjamin Reavis. She attended Old Dominion University, but left in 1967 to marry Lou Rell, a U.S. Navy pilot. The couple first moved to New Jersey, where Lou Rell took a position as a commercial airline pilot with Trans World Airlines. The family then moved to a 19th-century farmhouse in Brookfield, Connecticut, in 1969. Jodi Rell later attended, but did not graduate from, Western Connecticut State University. She received honorary law doctorates from the University of Hartford in 2001 and the University of New Haven in 2004. In 2015, she received an honorary doctorate degree of humane letters from Western Connecticut State University. In her early career, she tutored and did substitute work for the Hartford Public Schools.[citation needed]
Jodi Rell's political career began as a campaign worker for Connecticut state Rep. David Smith during several of his campaigns. Smith, a pilot for Eastern Airlines, declined to seek re-election to a 5th term in the Connecticut House of Representatives in the 1984 election. He encouraged Rell to enter the race to succeed him. Rell was elected in 1984, representing the 107th District in northwestern Fairfield County, centered on Brookfield. She served from 1985 to 1995.
She became lieutenant governor after the 1994 election as John Rowland's running mate and won re-election in 1998 and 2002, becoming governor in 2004 after Rowland resigned due to corruption.
In her first months in office, Rell had high approval ratings, with a December 2004 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll showing her at 80 percent, the highest rating ever measured by that poll for a governor in Connecticut. She announced in October 2005 she would seek a four-year term in 2006, and was nominated by the Republican Party in May 2006 to seek a full term of her own. Stamford businessman and former state representative Michael Fedele was nominated as her running mate as lieutenant governor.
Rell defeated her Democratic opponent, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. in the 2006 Connecticut gubernatorial election. She received approximately 710,000 votes, the highest total for any gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut history. She carried all but seven towns.
Governor Rell was one of many Republicans mentioned as a potential candidate for vice president in the 2008 presidential election. The presidential nominee John McCain chose Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate instead.
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