Janet C. Rzewnicki (born May 21, 1953) is an American retired politician and businesswoman who served four consecutive four-year terms as

Delaware State Treasurer In the state and territorial governments of the United States, 54 of the 56 states and territories have the executive position of treasurer. New York abolished the office of New York State Treasurer in 1926, in which the duties were transferred ...

, serving from 1983 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, she also ran unsuccessfully for Delaware's at-large congressional seat and for the governorship during the 1990s.

Life and career

Rzewnicki (pronounced Rez-nicky) was born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

, to Robert E. and Betty Ann Myers. She graduated from the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially known as UD, UDel, or Delaware) is a Statutory college#Delaware, privately governed, state-assisted Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Newark, Delaware, United States. UD offers f ...

in 1978, receiving the College of Business and Economics' Alumni Award of Excellence in 1992. She worked as a

certified public accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Stat ...

and became politically active, initially 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 (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

who worked on

Tom Carper Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician and former military officer who served from 2001 to 2025 as a United States Senate, United States senator from Delaware. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), D ...

's campaigns. In 1982, she switched parties and narrowly defeated

New Castle County New Castle County is the northernmost of the three counties of the U.S. state of Delaware (New Castle, Kent, and Sussex). As of the 2020 census, the population was 570,719, making it the most populous county in Delaware, with nearly 60% of the ...

councilman Joseph Farley to become Delaware State Treasurer. She went on to serve four consecutive four-year terms as state treasurer, from 1983 to 1999. Rzewnicki unsuccessfully challenged former governor

Mike Castle Michael Newbold Castle (born July 2, 1939) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 69th governor of Delaware from 1985 to 1992 and as the U.S. representative from from 1993 to 2011. He is a member of the Republican Party. Th ...

in the Republican primary for Delaware's at-large seat in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

in 1992, losing 54%-43%. She won the Republican nomination for governor in 1996 but lost the general election in a forty-point landslide to popular Democratic incumbent Governor Tom Carper. She was the first woman nominated for governor by a major party in Delaware. She went on to lose her 1998 reelection campaign for state treasurer to Democratic challenger and telecommunications executive

Jack Markell Jack Alan Markell (born November 26, 1960) is an American politician and diplomat. He had served the United States ambassador both to Italy and to San Marino. He had served as the United States ambassador to the Organisation for Economic Co-oper ...

. After leaving office in 1999, she joined DuPont Direct Financial Holdings in 2001. She served as president of the National Association of State Treasurers in 1988–89.

Personal life

Rzewnicki's husband, Victor, worked as a computer systems analyst for

DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...

as of 1982.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Rzewnicki, Janet 1953 births Living people 20th-century Delaware politicians 20th-century American women politicians American accountants American women accountants Delaware Republicans People from Akron, Ohio State treasurers of Delaware University of Delaware alumni