Earl Ray Tomblin (born March 15, 1952) is an American politician who served as the 35th

governor of West Virginia 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 ...

from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the

West Virginia Senate The West Virginia Senate is the upper house of the West Virginia Legislature. There are seventeen senatorial districts. Each district has two senators who serve staggered four-year terms. Although the Democratic Party held a supermajority in t ...

from 1980 to 2011 and as

president of the West Virginia Senate The president of the West Virginia Senate is a member of the West Virginia Senate who has been elected to be its president by the other senators. The current Senate president is Craig Blair, who has been in office since January 2021. In addition ...

from 1995 to 2011. Tomblin became acting governor in November 2010 following

Joe Manchin Joseph Manchin III (born August 24, 1947) is an American politician and businessman serving as the senior United States senator from West Virginia, a seat he has held since 2010. A member of the Democratic Party, Manchin was the 34th governor o ...

's election to the U.S. Senate. He won a

special election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in October 2011 to fill the unexpired term ending in January 2013 and was

elected Elected may refer to: * "Elected" (song), by Alice Cooper, 1973 * ''Elected'' (EP), by Ayreon, 2008 *The Elected, an American indie rock band See also *Election An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population ...

to a first full term as governor in November 2012.

Early life and education

Tomblin was born in

Logan County, West Virginia Logan County is a county in the U.S. state of West Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 32,567. Its county seat is Logan. Logan County comprises the Logan, WV Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Charle ...

, and is the son of Freda M. (née Jarrell) and Earl Tomblin. His mother was 18 years old when he was born. He has a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree from

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

where he was a member of

Kappa Alpha Order Kappa Alpha Order (), commonly known as Kappa Alpha or simply KA, is a social Fraternities and sororities, fraternity and a fraternal order founded in 1865 at Washington and Lee University, Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) i ...

and then went along to receive a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree from

Marshall University Marshall University is a public research university in Huntington, West Virginia. It was founded in 1837 and is named after John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States. The university is currently composed of nine colleges ...

State Legislature and Senate President

Tomblin was elected to the

West Virginia House of Delegates The West Virginia House of Delegates is the lower house of the West Virginia Legislature. Only three states—Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia—refer to their lower house as the House of Delegates. Organization Regular sessions begin with ...

in 1974, and reelected in 1976 and 1978. He won election to the Senate for the 7th district in 1980 and was subsequently re-elected every four years until his election as governor. Tomblin was elected on January 3, 1995, as the 48th President of the

. Having served in the position for almost seventeen years, he is the longest serving

Senate President President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's succession for its top executive office: for ...

in West Virginia's history. Tomblin became the first Lieutenant Governor of West Virginia upon creation of the honorary designation in 2000. As a senator, he represented the 7th Senate District encompassing Boone,

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Logan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gov ...

, and Wayne counties.

Acting governor

Tomblin became acting governor when

resigned after being elected to fill the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

seat of the late Senator

Robert Byrd Robert Carlyle Byrd (born Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.; November 20, 1917 – June 28, 2010) was an American politician and musician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia for over 51 years, from 1959 until his death in 2010. A ...

. Tomblin is the first person to serve as acting governor under West Virginia's current

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...

. While acting governor, Tomblin also retained the title of Senate President, per the state constitution. However, he did not participate in legislative business or preside over the Senate while acting governor.

Governor of West Virginia

Elections

2011 Special

In 2011, Tomblin stated his desire to run for the governorship. Following a ruling by the

Supreme Court of Appeals The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...

on January 18, 2011, a special gubernatorial election was scheduled for October 4, 2011. Tomblin was successful in the Democratic Primary, beating a field of six contenders, while Morgantown businessman

Bill Maloney Bill Maloney is an American businessman and politician. He was a two-time candidate for the governorship of West Virginia. He was the Republican nominee in the 2011 West Virginia gubernatorial special election, in which he lost by 7,546 votes, a ...

emerged as the Republican nominee in the May 14 primary. He went on to win the general election against Maloney and was sworn in as governor on November 13, 2011. Immediately before taking the oath as governor, Tomblin officially resigned from both the offices of Senate President and state senator.

2012

Tomlin ran for re-election to a first full term in 2012, and defeated Maloney in a rematch.

Tenure

In the

2016 presidential election This national electoral calendar for 2016 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2016 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *7 January: Kiri ...

, Tomblin endorsed fellow Democrat

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 ...

Abortion

Tomblin is

anti-abortion Anti-abortion movements, also self-styled as pro-life or abolitionist movements, are involved in the abortion debate advocating against the practice of abortion and its legality. Many anti-abortion movements began as countermovements in respo ...

. Despite this, in March 2014, Tomblin vetoed a bill that would have banned abortions in West Virginia after 20 weeks, which he said was due to constitutionality issues.Associated Press (March 29, 2014) �
"WV Governor Vetoes Abortion Bill, Sparking Outrage From National Pro-Life Group"
''Fox News''. Retrieved March 9, 2015. In March 2015, Tomblin again vetoed the bill; however, his veto was overridden by the West Virginia legislature.La Ganga, Maria (March 3, 2015) �

''Los-Angeles Times''. Retrieved March 9, 2015.

Approval ratings

A May 2013 survey by Republican strategist

Mark Blankenship Mark Blankenship (born December 9, 1978) is a writer, critic and the co-creator and editor-in-chief of the now dormant popular culture blog The Critical Condition. Since June 2021, he has been the New Works Director for the National Alliance for M ...

showed Tomblin's job approval rating to be at 69 percent, unchanged from two months earlier. According to a poll conducted by

Public Policy Polling Public Policy Polling (PPP) is an American polling firm affiliated with the Democratic Party. Founded in 2001 by businessman Dean Debnam, the firm is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Debnam currently serves as president and CEO of PPP, while T ...

in September 2013, Tomblin had an approval rating of 47 percent with 35 percent disapproving, up from 44 percent in 2011.

Personal life

Tomblin was married on September 8, 1979 to Joanne Jaeger, a native New Yorker and graduate of

, who served as the president of

Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College Southern West Virginia Community and Technical College (Southern) is a public community college with its main campus in Mount Gay, West Virginia. It is part of the West Virginia Community and Technical College System. History The school was ...

from 1999 to 2015. They reside in Chapmanville and have one son, Brent. Tomblin attends the First Presbyterian Church of Logan.

Electoral history

Notes

References

External links

* * , - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomblin, Earl Ray 1952 births 20th-century American politicians 21st-century American politicians American Presbyterians Businesspeople from West Virginia Democratic Party governors of West Virginia Living people Marshall University alumni Democratic Party members of the West Virginia House of Delegates People from Chapmanville, West Virginia Presidents of the West Virginia State Senate Democratic Party West Virginia state senators West Virginia University alumni