Amy Tuck (born July 8, 1963) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th

Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi The lieutenant governor of Mississippi is the second-highest ranking executive officer in Mississippi, below the governor of Mississippi. The office of lieutenant governor was established when Mississippi became a state, abolished for a few decade ...

from 2000 to 2008. A member of the Republican Party, she was previously a member of the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol ...

. She is the second woman to be elected to statewide office in Mississippi, and the first to have been reelected. Tuck later served as the Vice President of Campus Services at

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university adjacent to Starkville, Mississippi. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Unive ...

from 2008 to 2019.

Biography

Tuck was born in Maben,

Oktibbeha County Oktibbeha County is a county in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2020 census the population was 51,788. The county seat is Starkville. The county's name is derived from a local Native American word meanin ...

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1963. She received

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

and

Master of Public Administration The Master of Public Administration (M.P.Adm., M.P.A., or MPA) is a specialized higher professional post graduate degree in public administration, similar/ equivalent to the Master of Business Administration but with an emphasis on the issues of ...

degrees from Mississippi State University in Starkville before obtaining a J.D. degree from

Mississippi College School of Law Mississippi College School of Law is an American Bar Association accredited law school. MC Law is one of only two law schools in the state of Mississippi, and is the only law school in the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi. The school is a prof ...

Jackson Jackson may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jackson (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname or given name Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Q ...

. In 1990 she won a special election to the Mississippi Senate as a

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

, representing parts of

Choctaw The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...

, Montgomery, Oktibbeha, and

Webster Webster may refer to: People *Webster (surname), including a list of people with the surname *Webster (given name), including a list of people with the given name Places Canada *Webster, Alberta *Webster's Falls, Hamilton, Ontario United State ...

counties. In 1995, she was an unsuccessful candidate for Secretary of State, narrowly losing the Democratic primary to eventual winner Eric Clark. Following her defeat, she served as secretary of the Mississippi Senate from 1995 to 1999. Tuck was elected lieutenant governor in 1999, defeating Republican state senator

Bill Hawks William Thomas Hawks, known as Bill Hawks (born November 22, 1944 near Oxford, Mississippi), is an American politician, former civil servant, agricultural businessman, and founder and CEO of AgWorks Solutions, LLC. Early life and education Hawk ...

. In 2002, Tuck announced her intention to qualify for reelection as a Republican, effectively switching parties. In her announcement, she cited ongoing disagreement with the Democratic state legislature concerning

redistricting Redistribution (re-districting in the United States and in the Philippines) is the process by which electoral districts are added, removed, or otherwise changed. Redistribution is a form of boundary delimitation that changes electoral dist ...

as well as her conservative stances on

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...

, and

criminal justice reform Criminal justice reform addresses structural issues in Criminal justice, criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any poi ...

as motivating factors for her decision to switch parties. The next year, in 2003, she was nominated as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor and went on to defeat former Democratic state senator Martin Blackmon in the general election with 61% of the vote. Due to

term limit A term limit is a legal restriction that limits the number of terms an officeholder may serve in a particular elected office. When term limits are found in presidential and semi-presidential systems they act as a method of curbing the potenti ...

s, Tuck was ineligible for reelection as lieutenant governor in 2007. She was succeeded by

Phil Bryant Dewey Phillip Bryant (born December 9, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 31st lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2008 to 2012 and 4 ...

on January 10, 2008. In October 2007 it was announced that Tuck would be appointed as special assistant to Mississippi State University President Doc Foglesong upon expiration of her term as lieutenant governor. In this role, Tuck took a leading role in facilitating the university's

economic development In the economics study of the public sector, economic and social development is the process by which the economic well-being and quality of life of a nation, region, local community, or an individual are improved according to targeted goals and o ...

and private sector initiatives. Upon the retirement of Foglesong in March 2008 and the selection of

Mark E. Keenum Mark Everett Keenum (born January 28, 1961) is an agricultural economist who is the 19th and current university president of Mississippi State University. He served as a professor at Mississippi State University from 1988 to 1989 and 1997 to 20 ...

as his successor, Tuck was named the Vice President of Campus Services, a new position. In this position she oversees the university's facilities, parking and transit, sustainability, planning, and utilities divisions. Tuck announced in October 2019 that she would retire from her position as vice president on 31 December 2019 and was succeeded by former MSU finance head Don Zant.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tuck, Amy 1963 births 20th-century American women politicians 21st-century American women politicians Living people Lieutenant Governors of Mississippi Mississippi Democrats Mississippi Republicans Mississippi state senators Mississippi State University alumni Women state legislators in Mississippi Mississippi College School of Law alumni American United Methodists People from Maben, Mississippi 21st-century American politicians 20th-century American politicians

Biography

See also

References

External links