Kathleen Jennings (born April 4, 1953) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the

Attorney General of Delaware The attorney general of Delaware is a constitutional officer of the U.S. state of Delaware, and is the chief law officer and the head of the State Department of Justice. On January 1, 2019, Kathy Jennings was sworn in as the 46th attorney genera ...

. She is a member of the Democratic Party.

Early life and education

Jennings was born on April 4, 1953 in

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

. She was raised by a single mother and two grandparents. Jennings graduated from Mount Pleasant High School in 1971 and subsequently earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in English 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 ...

and

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

Villanova University School of Law The Charles Widger School of Law (known as Villanova Law) is the law school of Villanova University, a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was opened in 1953 and is approved by the American Bar Association (A ...

Career

She worked for the Delaware Department of Justice for twenty years as a state prosecutor and chief deputy attorney general. Among other cases, she successfully tried

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

Steven Brian Pennell. In 1995, she and

Charles Oberly Charles Monroe Oberly III (born November 9, 1946) is an American attorney from Delaware. He had served as United States Attorney for the District of Delaware from 2010 to 2017 and had served as Attorney General of Delaware from 1983 to 1995. Ea ...

opened their own law firm. Jennings served as Chief Administrative Officer for

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 ...

for one year. She resigned in January 2018 to run for

. She won the Democratic Party nomination. She defeated Republican Bernard Pepukayi in the

general election A general election is an electoral process to choose most or all members of a governing body at the same time. They are distinct from By-election, by-elections, which fill individual seats that have become vacant between general elections. Gener ...

, and was sworn into office on January 1, 2019. In the 2022 election, Jennings won a second term in a closer election, defeating Republican Julianne Murray with 53 percent of the vote.

Personal life

Jennings was married to Tom Molyneaux, an English professor at the

, until his death in 1977. She married Wilmington police detective Bill Jennings in 1983 and has a son, Billy, and a daughter.

Electoral history

References

External links

Government website

Campaign website
1953 births 20th-century American lawyers 20th-century American women lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American women Delaware attorneys general Delaware Democrats Delaware lawyers Living people University of Delaware alumni Villanova University School of Law alumni Women in Delaware politics {{Delaware-politician-stub