Leslie Carol Rutledge (born June 9, 1976) is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 21st lieutenant governor of Arkansas since 2023.

[1] Rutledge began her legal career as law clerk to the Arkansas Court of Appeals Judge Josephine Hart, a family friend.

[2] A partial set of personnel records obtained by the press in 2014 under Arkansas' freedom of information law showed that Rutledge was flagged by DHS with "do not rehire" status.

"[5] The agency had initially withheld the records, but a state judge ruled that Rutledge's file must be released under the Arkansas' freedom of information law.

[5][7] Other records released in 2018 included one document evaluating Rutledge's performance as "satisfactory"; one non-disciplinary "counseling statement" critiquing her handling of a case; and a "notice of disciplinary action.

[21][22][23] In July 2017, Rutledge joined Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as nine other Republican state attorneys general and Republican Idaho Governor Butch Otter, in threatening the Donald Trump administration that they would litigate if the president did not terminate the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy that had been put into place by President Barack Obama.

In 2018, she joined 19 other Republican-led states in a challenge to the ACA, saying, "It's time that we remove the Affordable Care Act from the backs of the American people.

"[29] Rutledge, along with then-President Donald Trump, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the entire ACA, which provides health insurance coverage to about 300,000 Arkansans.

[32] In June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and ruled that there is no federal constitutional right to abortion.

[39] In a speech at the Republican National Convention in July 2016, she declared "I proudly stand with Donald Trump" and blasted his opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton, saying: "How can you support someone who has had an FBI investigation?

[39] Asked about the discussion in an Arkansas Money and Politics interview, Rutledge stated it was to be expected because the other panelists were part of the "liberal elite media.

[43] In November 2016, Rutledge was appointed to the executive committee of the Republican Attorneys General Association;[44] she became the group's vice chairwoman the following year.

[48] In September 2022, The 65 Project, a legal activism group,[49] submitted an ethics complaint against Rutledge to the Arkansas Office of the Committee on Professional Conduct.

The complaint said that, by advancing false and frivolous claims to undermine the election result, Rutledge violated the rules of professional conduct governing lawyers.

[53][58] However, the court allowed the plaintiffs' claim against Rutledge in her official capacity for "illegal exaction" (i.e., unauthorized spending of taxpayer funds) to proceed.

[53] In 2021, following Trump's baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election, Arkansas's Republican-led Legislature enacted four laws that made it more difficult for voters to cast ballots.

[59][60][61] The Arkansas Supreme Court granted Rutledge's emergency motion for a stay, allowing the challenged laws to go into effect pending the appeal.

"[66] However, after badly trailing Sarah Huckabee Sanders in fundraising, Rutledge switched in November 2021 to the lieutenant governor race, where she faced a crowded field of rivals in the Republican primary, including state Senator Jason Rapert, state Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe, Washington County Judge Joseph Wood, Little Rock businessman Chris Bequette, and former Arkansas Republican Party chairman Doyle Webb.

[74] In March 2023, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin accused Rutledge of misspending state funds during her time as AG.

[75][76] In testimony before the state legislature's Joint Budget Committee personnel subcommittee, Griffin reported that his office determined that Rutledge had exceeded the $25 million-per-fiscal year limit on spending from the proceeds of lawsuit settlement fees, exceeding the limit by some $11.1 million in fiscal year 2023, before Griffin became AG.

"[76] Griffin said he had hired a certified public accountant/attorney to oversee his office's audit and would attempt to recoup some funds that had been disbursed or transferred to other state agencies.