Menu

Spotlight: Arkansas AG Leslie Rutledge

Professional Background: AG Rutledge is the 56th attorney general of Arkansas, a position she has held since January 13, 2015. She is the first Republican and woman to hold the position in Arkansas.

Prior to being elected, AG Rutledge worked in the Arkansas Court of Appeals clerking for Judge Josephine Hart, now Associate Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court. AG Rutledge served as Deputy Counsel in the Office of Governor Mike Huckabee. She also served as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in Lonoke County handling felony cases and as Attorney for Arkansas’s Division of Children and Family Services. During her time in Washington, D.C., AG Rutledge was Deputy Counsel for the Mike Huckabee for President campaign, Deputy Counsel at the National Republican Congressional Committee and Counsel for the Republican National Committee.

Her service extends to leadership in numerous community organizations including the Junior League, Alpha Delta Pi Alumni, National Rifle Association, and Women in Networking in Central Arkansas to name a few.

She is running for lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 2022.

Education: The University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Personal: A seventh generation Arkansan, AG Rutledge grew up on a cattle farm near Batesville, AR. Her mother, an elementary school teacher, and her father, a lawyer and a judge taught her the importance of service. In 2013, AG Rutledge met Boyce Johnson, a farmer, at a convention for the American Farm Bureau Federation. The couple wed in December 2015, and in July 2018 they welcomed a daughter. AG Rutledge was the first Arkansas constitutional officer to give birth while holding office.