Sean Parnell

Sean Randall Parnell (born November 19, 1962) is an American attorney and politician who was the tenth governor of Alaska from 2009 to 2014. He succeeded Sarah Palin in July 2009 and was elected to a full term as governor in 2010. In 2014, he narrowly lost his bid for re-election and returned to work in the private sector. He is a member of the Republican Party. Parnell graduated from the University of Puget Sound's School of Law (now known as Seattle University School of Law). He practiced law before being elected to the Alaska House of Representatives in 1992 and he continued to work in private legal practice while he was a member of the Alaska House and later, the Alaska Senate. He served two terms in the Alaska House from 1993 to 1997 before he was elected to a term in the Alaska Senate from 1997 to 2001. Parnell continued his legal career in the private sector, working as an attorney and as the state government relations director for Phillips Petroleum, now known as ConocoPhillips, and an attorney at the law firm Patton Boggs. Returning to public service, Parnell won the Republican primary race for lieutenant governor in 2006 and became Palin's running mate in her 2006 gubernatorial campaign, where the Palin and Parnell ticket defeated former Democratic governor Tony Knowles. Parnell was sworn in as lieutenant governor of Alaska in December 2006 and later assumed the governorship after Palin resigned in July 2009. Parnell was elected to a full term as governor in 2010, defeating former state representative Ethan Berkowitz in the general election. Parnell is the first unelected Alaska governor to be elected in his own right. He was narrowly defeated for a second term in 2014 by the formally Independent "unity ticket" of Republican-turned-Independent Bill...