Marie P. St. Fleur (born May 4, 1962) is a

Haitian American Haitian Americans (french: Haïtiens-Américains; ht, ayisyen ameriken) are a group of Americans of full or partial Haitian origin or descent. The largest proportion of Haitians in the United States live in Little Haiti to the South Florida area ...

politician and lawyer. former

Massachusetts State Representative The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 countie ...

who represented the Fifth

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

district from 1999-2011. Her district consisted of parts of the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

neighborhoods Dorchester and Roxbury. She is the first

Haitian-American Haitian Americans (french: Haïtiens-Américains; ht, ayisyen ameriken) are a group of Americans of full or partial Haitian origin or descent. The largest proportion of Haitians in the United States live in Little Haiti to the South Florida area ...

to hold public office in Massachusetts. Representative St. Fleur was one of the most active supporters of John Kerry's presidential bid, often traveling to Florida to do outreach on his behalf. Representative St. Fleur was appointed Vice-Chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee by House Speaker

Salvatore DiMasi Salvatore Francis "Sal" DiMasi (born August 11, 1945) is a former Democratic state representative in Massachusetts. The former Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives originally joined the state legislature in 1979, as a member of ...

, a leadership position that has tremendous influence in the budget process. On January 30, 2006

Thomas F. Reilly Thomas Francis Reilly (born February 14, 1942) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 45th Massachusetts Attorney General. He was born in Springfield, Massachusetts to Irish immigrant parents. He was one of three candidates who ...

, candidate for the Democratic nomination for

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

, selected St. Fleur as his running mate. Candidates for governor and

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

run separately through the primary, then are joined as a single ticket for the election. The following day she withdrew after

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

reported that she was delinquent in tax debts and owed over $40,000 in student loans. In February 2019 Marie St. Fleur announced that she is the Chief Operating Officer of Union Twist a company that has been established to operate a marijuana dispensary in

Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Middlesex County and the MetroWest subregion of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The city proper covers with a popu ...

.Framingham mayor negotiating deal with first adult-use marijuana retail shop, Union Twist
/ref>

Personal life and education

St. Fleur emigrated from Haiti as a child and attended the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

and

Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 studen ...

. She began practicing law in 1987. In 1999, she became the first Haitian immigrant to hold public office in Massachusetts by winning a special election to succeed

Charlotte Golar Richie Charlotte Golar Richie (born December 11, 1958 in Brooklyn) serves as the senior vice president for public policy, advocacy and government relations for YouthBuild USA. She was a candidate for the mayor of Boston in the 2013 election. Early li ...

. She was the vice chair of the House Ways and Means committee. She has three children.Rep. Marie St. Fleur bio
/ref>

Legal career

From 1987 to 1988 she was a judicial law clerk for the

Massachusetts Superior Court The Massachusetts Superior Court (also known as the Superior Court Department of the Trial Court) is a trial court department in Massachusetts. The Superior Court has original jurisdiction in civil actions over $50,000, and in matters where equita ...

. From 1988 to 1991 she was an

assistant district attorney In the United States, a district attorney (DA), county attorney, state's attorney, prosecuting attorney, commonwealth's attorney, or state attorney is the chief prosecutor and/or chief law enforcement officer representing a U.S. state in a loc ...

in the Middlesex County District Attorney's office. From 1991 to 1999 she was an assistant attorney general in the

Massachusetts Attorney General The Massachusetts Attorney General is an elected Constitution of Massachusetts, constitutionally defined executive officer of the Government of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Government. The officeholder is the chief lawyer and law enforcement offic ...

's office.

Political career

She is a former staffer to former Mayor of Boston

Thomas Menino Thomas Michael Menino (December 27, 1942 – October 30, 2014) was an American politician who served as the 53rd mayor of Boston, from 1993 to 2014. He was the city's longest-serving mayor. He was elected mayor in 1993 after first serving three ...

. The issue of St. Fleur's withdrawal received additional media attention when it was mentioned in an exchange between Reilly and rivals for the Democratic nomination

Deval Patrick Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician, civil rights lawyer, author, and businessman who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was first elected in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who ...

and

Chris Gabrieli Chris Gabrieli is an American education policy and innovation leader. He currently serves as CEO of the non-profit Empower Schools, Chairman of the Board of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education and part-time Lecturer at the Harvard G ...

during the gubernatorial

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

on September 7, 2006. Reilly accused Gabrieli of having leaked a secret report about St. Fleur's finances to the Boston Globe. Later in the debate he asked Patrick, who has confessed to tax problems of his own: "If Marie St. Fleur can't be lieutenant governor, how can you be governor?" She supports charter schools and in-state tuition for undocumented immigrants. She is a practicing CatholicMarie St. Fleur bio
/ref> and supports same-sex marriage, despite the church's pronouncements on the issue. During the 2008 presidential primary campaign, St. Fleur initially supported

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

for president. In February 2010 she announced that she would not run for reelection and in April 2010 she accepted a job as director of intergovernmental relations for the City of Boston. She left that position in 2013.LinkedIn Profile
/ref>

Post-political career

From 2013 to 2016 she served as the president and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the Bessie Tartt Wilson Initiative for Children, Inc. From 2019 to 2020 she served as the executive director of King Boston (also known as

the Boston Foundation The Boston Foundation, founded in 1915, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation.https://www.tbf.org/-/media/tbf/files/financial-information/financial-statements/tbf-fy2018-audited-financial-statements.pdf?la=en&hash=FB ...

). Since 2016 she has served as the principal of St. Fleur Communications.

References

External links

Marie St. Fleur at the Massachusetts State Legislature website

Marie St. Fleur, Famous Haitian Americans
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Fleur, Marie Haitian emigrants to the United States American politicians of Haitian descent Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives 1962 births Living people University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Boston College Law School alumni Women state legislators in Massachusetts People from Dorchester, Boston Politicians from Boston Catholics from Massachusetts 21st-century American lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians Massachusetts lawyers 21st-century American women politicians 20th-century American women politicians