After serving as attorney general, many individuals have continued their public service career in a higher office, including president of the United States, chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, governor, and senator.
Click on your state below to find attorneys general who have held higher office. The information provided may not be all inclusive.
To learn more about former attorneys general, visit these pages:
Bill Baxley
- Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, 1983-1987
Charles A. Graddick
- Circuit Judge on the Circuit Court of Alabama, 13th Judicial Circuit, 2004-2019
William H. Pryor, Jr.
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, 2005-2021 (present)
Jeff Sessions
- U.S. Attorney General 2017-2018
- U.S. Senator from Alabama, 1997-2017
Don Siegelman
- Governor of Alabama, 1999-2003
- Lieutenant Governor of Alabama, 1995-1999
Luther Strange
- U.S. Senator from Alabama, 2017-2018
Bruce Babbitt
- U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 1993-2001
- Governor of Arizona, 1978-1987
Janet Napolitano
- U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, 2009-2013
- Governor of Arizona, 2003-2009
Mike Beebe
- Governor of Arkansas, 2007-2015
Winston Bryant
- Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, 1981-1991
William Clinton
- President of the United States, 1993-2001
- Governor of Arkansas, 1979-1981, 1983-1992
Jack Wilson Holt, Jr.
- Chief Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, 1984-1995
Leslie Rutledge
- Lt. Governor of Arkansas, 2023-
Mark Pryor
- U.S. Senator from Arkansas, 2003-2015
Joe Purcell
- Governor of Arkansas, 1979
- Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, 1975-1981
Ray Thornton
- U.S. Congressman, 2nd District of Arkansas, 1991-1997
- U.S. Congressman, 4th District of Arkansas, 1973-1979
Jim Guy Tucker
- Governor of Arkansas, 1992-1996
- Lieutenant Governor of Arkansas, 1991-1992
- U.S. Congressman, 2nd District of Arkansas, 1977-1979
Xavier Becerra
- U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, 2021-present
Jerry Brown
- Governor of California, 2011-2019
George Deukmejian
- Governor of California, 1983-1991
Kamala Harris
- Vice President of the United States, 2021-present
- U.S. Senator from California, 2017-2021
Bill Lockyer
- Treasurer of California, 2007-2015
Dan Lungren
- U.S. Congressman, 3rd District of California, 2005-2013
Stanley Mosk
- Associate Justice on the California Supreme Court, 1964-2001
Gale Norton
- U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 2001-2006
Ken Salazar
- Ambassador to Mexico, 2021-present
- U.S. Secretary of the Interior, 2009-2013
- U.S. Senator from Colorado, 2005-2009
John Suthers
- Mayor of Colorado Springs, 2015-2021 (present)
Richard Blumenthal
- U.S. Senator from Connecticut, 2011-2021 (present)
Albert Coles
- Judge on the Connecticut Superior Court, 1963-1979
Robert Killian
- Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut, 1975-1981
Joseph Lieberman
- U.S. Senator from Connecticut, 1989-2013
Harold Mulvey
- Judge on the Connecticut Superior Court, 1968-1984
Jane Brady
- Judge on the Delaware Superior Court, 2005-2017
Carl Danberg
- Chief Judge on the Court of Common Pleas, 2021-present
- Judge on the Court of Common Pleas, 2013-2021
Richard S. Gebelein
- Judge on the Delaware Superior Court, 1984-2005
Charles Oberly, III
- U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, 2010-2017
Robert Rigsby
- DC Superior Court, 2002-2021 (present)
Vanessa Ruiz
- DC Court of Appeals, 1994-2012 (retired)
Arabella Teal
- Administrative Law Judge, 2005-2021 (present)
Charlie Crist
- U.S. Congressman, 13th District of Florida, 2017-2021 (present)
- Governor of Florida, 2007-2011
Richard W. Ervin
- Chief Justice on the Florida Supreme Court, 1969-1971
Bill McCollum
- U.S. House of Representatives from the 8th District of Florida, 1993-2000
- U.S. House of Representatives from the 5th District of Florida, 1981-1993
Robert Shevin
- Judge on the Florida Court of Appeals, 1996-2005
Elizabeth Barrett-Anderson
- Judge, Superior Court of Guam, 1998-2012
- Senior Judge Pro Tempore, 2012-2014
Alicia Limtiaco
- U.S. Attorney, Guam & Northern Mariana Islands, 2010-2017
Shiro Kashiwa
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, 1982-1986
Bert Kobayashi
- Justice on the Hawaii Supreme Court, 1969-1978
Corinne Watanabe
- Associate Judge, Court of Appeals, 1992-2009 (retired)
Larry Echo Hawk
- Assistant U.S. Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs, 2009-2012
Jim Jones
- Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court, 2004-2017 (retired)
Wayne Kidwell
- Justice on the Idaho Supreme Court, 1998-2005 (retired)
Alan G. Lance
- Judge on the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, 2004-2017 (retired)
David H. Leroy
- Lieutenant Governor of Idaho, 1983-1987
Allan G. Shepard
- Chief Justice, Idaho Supreme Court, 1987-1989
- Justice, Idaho Supreme Court, 1969-1987
Roland Burris
- U.S. Senator from Illinois, 2008-2010
William G. Clark
- Chief Justice on the Illinois Supreme Court, 1985-1988
- Justice on the Supreme Court of Illinois, 1976-1992
William Guild
- Judge on the Illinois Appellate Court, 2nd District, 1970-1979 (retired)
Neil Hartigan
- Judge on the Illinois Court of Claims, 2013-2019
- Judge on the Illinois Appellate Court, 2002-2004
- Lieutenant Governor, 1973-1977
The Honorable Karen Freeman-Wilson
- Mayor of Gary, 2012-2019
Linley Pearson
- Judge, Clinton Circuit Court, start year unconfirmed – 2012
Bonnie Campbell
- Director, U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, 1995-2000
Norman A. Erbe
- Governor of Iowa, 1961-1963
Andy Beshear
- Governor of Kentucky, 2019-2021 (present)
Steve Beshear
- Governor of Kentucky, 2007-2015
- Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, 1983-1987
John B. Breckinridge
- U.S. Congressman, 6th District of Kentucky, 1973-1979
Ben Chandler
- U.S. Congressman, 6th District of Kentucky, 2004-2013
Frederic J. Cowan
- Judge on the Circuit Court of Kentucky, 30th Judicial Circuit, 2007-2015 (retired)
Robert F. Stephens
- Chief Justice on the Supreme Court of Kentucky, 1982-1998
David Armstrong
- Mayor of Louisville, 1999-2003
- Jefferson County Judge/Executive, 1989-1999
Joseph E. Brennan
- U.S. Congressman, 1st District of Maine, 1987-1991
- Governor of Maine, 1979-1987
Janet Mills
- Governor of Maine, 2019-2021 (present)
Robert C. Murphy
- Chief Judge on the Maryland Court of Appeals, 1972-1996
C. Ferdinand Sybert
- Judge on the Maryland Court of Appeals, 1961-1965
Edward Brooke
- U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, 1967-1979
Elliot Richardson
- U.S. Secretary of Commerce, 1976-1977
- U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom, 1975-1976
- U.S. Attorney General, 1973
- U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1973
- U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1970-1973
- U.S. Under Secretary of State, 1969-1970
- Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, 1965-1967
James Shannon
- U.S. Congressman, 5th District of Massachusetts, 1979-1985
Paul L. Adams
- Judge on the Michigan Supreme Court, 1962, 1964-1973
Jennifer Granholm
- U.S. Secretary of Energy, 2021-present
- Governor of Michigan, 2003-2011
Walter Mondale
- U.S. Ambassador to Japan, 1993-1996
- Vice President of the United States, 1977-1981
- U.S. Senator from Minnesota, 1964-1976
William Allain
- Governor of Mississippi, 1984-1988
Edwin Lloyd Pittman
- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, 2001-2004
- Justice of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, 1989-2004
John Ashcroft
- U.S. Attorney General, 2001-2005
- U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1995-2001
- Governor of Missouri, 1985-1993
John M. Dalton
- Governor of Missouri, 1961-1965
John Danforth
- U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, 2004-2005
- U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1976-1995
Thomas Eagleton
- U.S. Senator from Missouri, 1968-1987
Josh Hawley
- U.S. Senator from Missouri, 2019-2021 (present)
Jay Nixon
- Governor of Missouri, 2009-2017
Forrest H. Anderson
- Governor of Montana, 1969-1973
Steve Bullock
- Governor of Montana, 2013-2021 (present)
Mike McGrath
- Chief Justice on the Montana Supreme Court, 2008-2021 (present)
Marc Racicot
- Governor of Montana, 1993-2001
Richard Bryan
- U.S. Senator from Nevada, 1989-2001
- Governor of Nevada, 1983-1989
Catherine Cortez-Masto
- U.S. Senator from Nevada, 2017-2021 (present)
Roger D. Foley
- Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, 1962-1996
Robert List
- Governor of Nevada, 1979-1983
Brian Sandoval
- Governor of Nevada, 2011-2019
- Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, 2005-2009
Charles E. Springer
- Chief Justice on the Nevada Supreme Court, 1981-1999
John P. Arnold
- Superior Court Judge, 1993-2011 (retired)
Kelly Ayotte
- U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, 2011-2017
Jeffrey Howard
- Chief Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, 2015-2021 (present)
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit, 2002-2015
Gordon MacDonald
- Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court, 2021-present
Stephen E. Merrill
- Governor of New Hampshire, 1993-1997
Maurice J. Murphy, Jr.
- U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, 1961-1962
Warren Rudman
- Chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, 1997-2001
- U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, 1980-1993
David Souter
- U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice, 1990-2009
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Judge, 1990
Louis C. Wyman
- U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, 1974-1975
- U.S. Congressman, 1st District of New Hampshire, 1963-1965, 1967-1974
Jeffrey Chiesa
- U.S. Senator from New Jersey, 2013 (appointed)
John J. Farmer, Jr.
- Governor of New Jersey, 2002
David Furman
- Judge on the New Jersey Superior Court, 1962-1988
Gurbir S. Grewal
- Director of the Division of Enforcement, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 2021-present
Anne Milgram
- Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, 2021-present
Deborah Poritz
- Chief Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, 1996-2006
The Honorable Stuart Rabner
- Chief Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, 2007-2021 (present)
James Zazzali
- Chief Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, 2006-2007
- Justice on the New Jersey Supreme Court, 2000-2006
Peter G. Verniero
- Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, 1999-2004
Toney Anaya
- Governor of New Mexico, 1983-1987
Jeff Bingaman
- U.S. Senator from New Mexico, 1983-2013
Hal Stratton
- Chairman, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 2002-2006
Tom Udall
- U.S. Senator from New Mexico, 2009-2021
- U.S. Congressman, 3rd District of New Mexico, 1999-2009
Andrew Cuomo
- Governor of New York, 2011-2021
Eliot Spitzer
- Governor of New York, 2007-2008
Roy Cooper
- Governor of North Carolina, 2017-2021 (present)
Mike Easley
- Governor of North Carolina, 2001-2009
Robert Burren Morgan
- U.S. Senator from North Carolina, 1975-1981
Lacy Herman Thornburg
- Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, 1995-2009
Heidi Heitkamp
- U.S. Senator from North Dakota, 2013-2019
Allen I. Olson
- Governor of North Dakota, 1981-1985
Bob Wefald
- District Court Judge in the South Central Judicial District in North Dakota, 1998-2010
Alexandro C. Castro
- Chief Justice on the Supreme Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, 2012-2021 (present)
- Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, 1998-2012
- Presiding Judge on the Superior Court of the Northern Mariana Islands, 1993-1998
Paul W. Brown
- Associate Justice on the Ohio Supreme Court, 1964-1968
Richard Cordray
- Director, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 2012-2017
Mike DeWine
- Governor of Ohio, 2019-2021 (present)
- U.S. Senator, 1995-2007
- Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 1991-1994
Lee Fisher
- Lieutenant Governor of Ohio, 2007-2011
William Saxbe
- U.S. Ambassador to India, 1975-1976
- U.S. Attorney General, 1974-1975
- U.S. Senator from Ohio, 1969-1974
Robert Harlan Henry
- Chief Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, 2008-2010
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, 1994-2008
Scott Pruitt
- Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, 2017-2018
Lee Johnson
- Judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals, 1979-1980
Ted Kulongoski
- Governor of Oregon, 2003-2011
- Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of Oregon, 1997-2001
James A. Redden
- Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, 1980-2017
Robert Thornton
- Judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals, 1971-1983
Anne X. Alpern
- Justice on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 1961-1962
Tom Corbett
- Governor of Pennsylvania, 2011-2015
D. Michael Fisher
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, 2003-2021 (present)
Josh Shapiro
- Governor of Pennsylvania, 2023-
The Honorable Jerry Pappert
- Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, 2014-2021 (present)
David Henry Stahl
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, 1968-1970
Pedro Pierluisi
- U.S. House of Representatives, 2009-2017
Roberto Sanchez-Ramos
- Judge, Court of Appeals, 2005–2021 (present)
Wanda Vázquez Garced
- Governor of Puerto Rico, 2019-2021
Sheldon Whitehouse
- U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, 2007-2021 (present)
Henry McMaster
- Governor of South Carolina, 2017-2021 (present)
- Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, 2015-2017
Mark Barnett
- Judge, 6th Judicial Circuit, 2007-2019
William J. Janklow
- Governor of South Dakota, 1979-1987 & 1995-2003
Larry Long
- Judge, 2nd Judicial Circuit, 2009-2018
Charles Burson
- Chief of Staff to the Vice President of the United States, 1999-2001
Paul G. Summers
- Senior Judge, Tennessee Supreme Court, 2013-2017
- Judge, Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, 1990-1999
Greg Abbott
- Governor of Texas, 2015-2021 (present)
John Cornyn
- U.S. Senator from Texas, 2002-2021 (present)
John L. Hill, Jr.
- Chief Justice on the Texas Supreme Court, 1985-1988
Mark Wells White, Jr.
- Governor of Texas, 1983-1987
Jeffrey Amestoy
- Chief Justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, 1997-2004 (retired)
John J. Easton Jr.
- Various Positions in the United States Department of Energy, 1989-1993
Jim Jeffords
- U.S. Senator from Vermont, 1989-2007
- U.S. Congressman, Vermont’s At-Large District, 1975-1989
Robert Stafford
- U.S. Senator of Vermont, 1971-1989
- U.S. Congressman, Vermont's At-Large District, 1961-1971
- Governor of Vermont, 1959-1961
- Lieutenant Governor of Vermont, 1957-1959
Gerald L. Baliles
- Governor of Virginia, 1986-1990
Randolph Beales
- Judge, Court of Appeals of Virginia, 2006-2021 (present)
Jim Gilmore
- Governor of Virginia, 1998-2002
Albertis S. Harrison, Jr.
- Justice on the Supreme Court of Virginia, 1968-1981
- Governor of Virginia, 1962-1966
Bob McDonnell
- Governor of Virginia, 2010-2014
The Honorable Bill Mims
- Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, 2010-2021 (present)
Slade Gorton
- U.S. Senator from Washington, 1981-1987, 1989-2001
Christine Gregoire
- Governor of Washington, 2005-2013
William W. Barron
- Governor of West Virginia, 1961-1965
Jim Doyle
- Governor of Wisconsin, 2003-2011
John W. Reynolds, Jr.
- Governor of Wisconsin, 1963-1965
Robert Warren
- Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, 1989-1996
- Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1986-1991
- Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, 1974-1991
James E. Barrett
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, 1971-2011
- Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, 1979-1984
Clarence Addison Brimmer, Jr.
- Judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, 1975-2014
William Hill
- Justice on the Wyoming Supreme Court, 1998-2018
The Honorable Gregory A. Phillips
- Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, 2013-2021 (present)
