Elections
In 2004,Tennant ran unsuccessfully for West Virginia Secretary of State,losing the Democratic primary to Ken Hechler by 1,108 votes. [9]
In 2008,Tennant was elected secretary of state,beating out Republican candidate Charles Minimah with 65% of the vote. [10] During her campaign,she was supported by the Secretary of State Project,a 527 political action committee that supports progressive candidates for secretary of state positions in swing states. [11]
In 2012,Tennant was easily re-elected with more than 62% of the vote against Republican Brian Savilla. [12]
In 2016,Tennant narrowly lost re-election to her Republican challenger,Mac Warner,by less than 2%. [13]
In 2020,Tennant ran to reclaim the Secretary of State's office. [14] On June 9,2020,she won the primary with 100%,as she was uncontested. [15] She lost to incumbent Republican Mac Warner in the November general election,with approximately 41 percent of the vote,compared to Warner's 59 percent. [16]
In 2024,Tennant was elected a commissioner seat in Kanawha County West Virginia
Tenure
Tennant took office as the Secretary of State of West Virginia on January 19,2009. [17]
In 2010,Tennant initiated a pilot online voting program that allowed 179 deployed West Virginian service members to vote via the Internet. [18]
In 2012,the Secretary of State's office issued a Republican primary ballot,which told voters to select 18 at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention when 19 were to be chosen. [19] The error cost West Virginia $148,705 to reprint the ballots and another $64,000 to reprogram the digital voting machines. [19] [20]
Tennant,along with U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin,led the investigation of the Lincoln County 2010 Democratic primary,in which a large number of absentee ballots were cast in favor of a certain faction of the Democratic party. In early 2012,as a result of the investigation,Lincoln County Sheriff Jerry Bowman and Lincoln County Clerk Donald Whitten pleaded guilty to felony charges. [21] Bowman,Whitten,and Tennant were all elected Democratic officials. [21]
In 2013,Tennant returned $3 million in unused revenue to the state legislature after Tennant's department enacted cost-saving measures and settled two lawsuits for significantly less money than expected. [22]
In 2013,the Secretary of State's office was late sending out change-of-address materials to election officials,which are sent out every two years to keep election rolls accurate. According to the Harrison County Clerk's office,the materials should have arrived at the end of 2013 to give officials time to send them out before the primary election in May 2014,but some county clerks did not receive the materials until April 2014 or later. [23]
In 2014,a number of West Virginian political candidates were unable to file their campaign finance reports on the Secretary of State's website due to issues with the online campaign finance reporting system. Tennant said,"The company that was hired to update the campaign finance reporting system has not met the standards of my office,has not met the standards of the contract or what West Virginians deserve...They are being held accountable." [24]
On January 7,2016,the Secretary of State's office opened a second location in Fairmont. [25]
