Mary Fallin: Everything You Need To Know
Fallin speaks at the RNC tonight.
July 21, 2016, 5:40 PM ET
• 2 min read
— -- Name: Mary Fallin (née Copeland)
Party: Republican
Date of Birth: December 9, 1954
Hometown: Warrenburg, Missouri
Age: 61
What She Does Now: Governor of Oklahoma (serving her second term)
What She Used to Do: Fallin worked for various Oklahoma state government agencies, including its Department of Tourism and Recreation, Employment Security Commission and Office of Personnel Management. She has also worked in the private sector as a hotel manager and as a commercial real estate broker.
Fallin got her start in politics in 1990, when she began serving in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. She then served as lieutenant governor for three terms, from 1995 to 2007, and in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 2007 to 2011. She announced her run for governor in 2009 and took office in 2011. She is the first woman to serve as Oklahoma’s governor.
Family Tree: Fallin’s parents Mary Jo and Joseph Newton Copeland each served as mayor of the city of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, where Fallin grew up. Fallin’s parents were both Democrats, as was Fallin until the age of 21, when she decided to join the Republican Party. Fallin attended Oklahoma Baptist University and earned a Bachelor of Science in human and environmental sciences, and family relations and child development from Oklahoma State University.
Key Life/Career Moments:
While in the U.S. House of Representatives, Fallin was a cosponsor of a bill that initially contained language specifying only victims of "forcible rapes" could receive public assistance for an abortion. According to The Hill, “The original version of the measure banned all federally funded abortions, except in cases of ‘an act of forcible rape or, if a minor, an act of incest.’ After an outcry from women’s groups and Democrats, the ‘forcible rape’ language was dropped from the bill. Federal funding of abortions is banned by the Hyde Amendment, which Congress has renewed annually since the 1970s. The No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act would effectively make those rules permanent.” H.R.5939 passed in the House but failed in the Senate. (The Hill, 8/22/12)According to the Tulsa World, Fallin signed state legislation barring coverage of abortion through health insurance exchanges with NO exceptions for rape or incest. “SB 547 bars elective abortion coverage from health plans offered through health care exchanges set up as a result of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and also prohibits such coverage from being included in any standard health insurance policy. Under the bill, such coverage would have to be bought as a separate policy whose premium “fully covers the estimated cost” of the procedure. The bill defines ‘elective abortion’ as one for ‘any reason other than to prevent the death of the mother.’ It does not allow exceptions for other medical conditions, or in cases of rape or incest.”According to the Chicago Tribune, this law made Oklahoma the fourth state to place such restrictions on abortions. [Tulsa World, 4/14/11, Chicago Tribune, 4/21/11] According to an Associated Press report on April 20, 2011: “Two abortion bills described by opponents as some of the strictest in the nation, including one that calls for prison time for doctors who perform abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, were signed into law on Wednesday by new Republican Gov. Mary Fallin....The first bill is called the ‘Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act’ and is based on the premise that a fetus can experience pain after 20 weeks of gestation. It includes an exemption for abortions performed when the life of the mother is at risk or if there is a risk of physical impairment of a ‘major bodily function.’”What You Might Not Know About Her:
In order to close a $1.3 billion hole in the budget, Fallin has cut public school budgets, causing some districts to cancel popular programs and fire teachers. She also cut the state’s Department of Human Services’ budget by $100 million, per local station KFOR.Fallin’s first husband Joseph Fallin is a dentist. They were married four years. She remarried Wade Christensen, an Oklahoma City lawyer, in 2009, but kept her first husband’s last name. She and Christensen have a total of six children in their blended family. One of Fallin’s children, Christina Fallin, is a model, makeup artist, and musician, and was named "the most interesting governor’s daughter in the country" in a 2014 Washington Post article.Fun fact -- in college, Fallin joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.What She Has Said About Trump:
Fallin abstained from commenting on Trump throughout the primary but endorsed him on May 4, saying it was her priority to elect a conservative, pro-business Republican who is strong on national defense, and that she believes Trump is that candidate. "I know that our nation wants a change," Fallin said. "Donald Trump has led a movement across our nation that will cause that change to happen, so I'm 100 percent behind him."