Eleanor Jordan (born May 18, 1953) is an American politician who served in the

Kentucky House of Representatives The Kentucky House of Representatives is the lower house of the Kentucky General Assembly. It is composed of 100 Representatives elected from single-member districts throughout the Commonwealth. Not more than two counties can be joined to form ...

from 1996 to 2001 before becoming the Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Women.

Politics

Jordan won a special election for her House seat in February 1996 and won the general election in November, as well as re-election in 1998. In 2000, she ran for Kentucky's Third Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives but lost against the incumbent, though she "raised more than $1.7 million, engaged scores of volunteers, and attracted national attention," including endorsements from President Bill Clinton, New Jersey Senator

Bill Bradley William Warren Bradley (born July 28, 1943) is an American politician and former professional basketball player. He served three terms as a Democratic U.S. senator from New Jersey (1979–1997). He ran for the Democratic Party's nomination f ...

, former Texas Governor Ann Richards, and 35 members of Congress, who traveled to Louisville to make the endorsements. She was the state's first black candidate for Congress or any national office. In 2001, Governor Paul E. Patton appointed her executive director of the Office of the Ombudsman for the Cabinet for Families and Children. During the 2000s, Jordan began caucusing with other female legislators, including

Joni Jenkins Joni L. Jenkins (born December 6, 1958) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives representing District 44 since January 1995. She is also serving as Minority Leader in the House since December 20 ...

Susan Johns Susan D. Johns (born October 7, 1954) is a former Kentucky politician and member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. After receiving degrees from Georgetown College, she worked in education before representing District 36 i ...

, Ruth Ann Palumbo,

Mary Lou Marzian Mary Lou Marzian (born September 16, 1954, in Louisville, Kentucky) is an American politician and a Democratic member of the Kentucky House of Representatives representing District 34 from 1994 to 2023. Marzian was first elected in a January 19 ...

, and Kathy Stein, in order to track legislation in their individual fields of expertise and work together to affect legislation more easily than they could have done alone. One early victory involved "building statewide opposition to a bill that, before their organized effort, likely would have gone unnoticed and passed easily, ..removing the requirement that educational institutions offer women's softball as well as men's baseball, violating the spirit if not the letter of Title IX."

Personal life and education

Jordan was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 18, 1953. She attended the University of Kentucky and Western Kentucky University. She is a member of the

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...

sorority and the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

, and she has worked with the

Council of State Governments The Council of State Governments (CSG) is a nonpartisan, non-profit organization in the United States that serves all three branches of state government. Founded in 1933 by Colorado state Sen. Henry W. Toll, CSG is a region-based forum that ...

and various organizations related to child care, education, libraries, and churches.

Election results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jordan, Eleanor 1953 births Living people Women state legislators in Kentucky Democratic Party members of the Kentucky House of Representatives 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American women