Beverly A. Clarno (born March 29, 1936) is an American politician who served as the 27th

Oregon Secretary of State The secretary of state of Oregon, an elected constitutional officer within the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon, is first in the line of succession to the List of Governors of Oregon, governor. The duties of the offi ...

from 2019 to 2021. She was the only Republican statewide official in Oregon at the time. Clarno previously served as a member of the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the upper house being the Oregon State Senate. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of ...

and

Oregon State Senate The Oregon State Senate is the upper house of the State legislature (United States), statewide legislature for the US state of Oregon. Along with the lower chamber Oregon House of Representatives it makes up the Oregon Legislative Assembly. Ther ...

. , she is the most recent Republican to have held statewide office in Oregon.

Early life and education

Clarno was born in Langlois, Oregon. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from

Marylhurst University Marylhurst University was a private applied liberal arts and business university in Marylhurst, Oregon. Marylhurst was founded as St. Mary's College in 1893 and run for many years by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. The former ca ...

Career

Clarno was elected to the

in 1989. She became Speaker of the House in 1995, succeeding

Larry Campbell Larry W. Campbell (born February 28, 1948) is a Canadian politician who was the 37th mayor of Vancouver, Canada, from 2002 until 2005, and a member of the Senate of Canada from 2005 until his retirement in 2023. Before he was mayor, Campbe ...

. She served in the House until 1996, opting to instead run for

Oregon State Treasurer The Oregon state treasurer is a constitutional officer within the executive branch of the government of the U.S. state of Oregon, elected by statewide vote to serve a four-year term. As chief financial officer for the state, the office holder head ...

, though she was defeated by incumbent Democrat Jim Hill. In 2000, she was elected to the

, where she served one term. She resigned on August 1, 2003 to take a position with the

George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college vict ...

as a regional representative for the

United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the US federal government created to protect the health of the US people and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Kate Brown Katherine Brown (born June 21, 1960) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 38th governor of Oregon from 2015 to 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served three terms as the state representative from the 13th distr ...

appointed Clarno as

to complete the term of Dennis Richardson following his death in 2019. Brown announced that she was only interested in appointing a successor to Richardson who wanted the day-to-day responsibilities of the office and would not run for election to a full term, a condition to which Clarno agreed upon her appointment. As Oregon does not have a

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 ...

position, the Secretary of State serves in a similar role and is first in the line of succession to the

. As Clarno was an appointee, however, she was ineligible to become Governor, leaving

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 transfer ...

Tobias Read Tobias Read (born July 1, 1975) is an American politician who is currently serving as the 30th Oregon Secretary of State since 2025. As a member of the Democratic Party he served as the 29th Oregon State Treasurer from 2017 to 2025. Before that, ...

next in the line of succession until

Shemia Fagan Shemia Patricia Fagan (born September 20, 1981) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the Oregon secretary of state from 2021 to 2023. She previously served as a Democratic member of the Oregon Senate, representing Senate District ...

assumed office on January 4, 2021.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarno, Bev 1936 births 20th-century American women politicians 20th-century Oregon politicians 21st-century American women politicians George W. Bush administration personnel Lewis & Clark College alumni Living people Marylhurst University alumni Republican Party members of the Oregon House of Representatives 21st-century members of the Oregon Legislative Assembly Republican Party Oregon state senators People from Curry County, Oregon Politicians from Bend, Oregon Ranchers from Oregon Secretaries of state of Oregon Speakers of the Oregon House of Representatives United States Department of Health and Human Services officials Women legislative speakers Women state legislators in Oregon

Early life and education

Career

See also

References