Amy Tuck

Amy Tuck (born July 8, 1963) was the 30th Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi. A Republican, she is only the second woman elected to statewide office in Mississippi and the first to have been re-elected.

Tuck, a native of tiny Maben in Oktibbeha County in north central Mississippi, received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Mississippi State University and a Juris Doctor degree from Mississippi College School of Law.

In 1990, she defeated five others to be elected to the Mississippi Senate to represent Choctaw, Montgomery, Oktibbeha and Webster counties. In 1995, Tuck ran for Secretary of State to fill the post of Dick Molpus, who ran unsuccessfully for governor against Kirk Fordice. She was narrowly defeated in the Democratic primary by Eric Clark, the eventual winner. Undeterred by the political setback, she ran for lieutenant governor in 1999 and defeated Bill Hawks.

In 2002, just two years into her term having been elected as a Democrat, Tuck made national headlines when she switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. She cited philosophical differences with her former party on issues such as abortion, gay rights, civil justice reform, and congressional redistricting. In 2003, Tuck was re-elected with 61 percent of the vote, this time as a Republican. She defeated former Democratic state Senator Barbara Martin Blackmon.

Due to term limits, Tuck was ineligible to seek a third term as lieutenant governor in 2007. Phil Bryant won the 2007 election for Mississippi Lieutenant Governor and succeeded Tuck in early 2008.

On October 16, 2007, it was announced that Tuck will become a special assistant to the president at Mississippi State University, her alma mater. Her appointment, which was approved by the state Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, was effective January 2008 once her official state duties were complete. In her new role at MSU, Tuck interacts with state, federal and private sector officials to facilitate the university's economic development efforts, provide consultation on public policy issues and interact with a variety of state, national and international organizations. Tuck currently serves as Mississippi State's Vice President of Campus Services, where she oversees facilities management, parking and transit operations, the Office of the Campus Master Planner, the Office of the Campus Architect, sustainability, and utilities.