Tom Corbett

This election marked the first time an incumbent governor running for re-election in Pennsylvania lost since William Bigler in 1854, and the first time in history that a Republican governor lost re-election in Pennsylvania.

After his defeat he returned to private life and registered as a lobbyist in 2021.

Corbett was born in Philadelphia, the son of Mary Bernardine (Diskin) and Thomas W. Corbett.

He received his Bachelor's degree at Lebanon Valley College and was employed as a 9th grade teacher for one year at Pine Grove Area School District Corbett then earned his J.D. from St. Mary's University Law School.

Thomas Wingett Corbett Jr. (born June 17, 1949) is an American politician, lobbyist, and former prosecutor who served as the 46th governor of Pennsylvania from 2011 to 2015.

A member of the Republican Party, he was also attorney general of Pennsylvania.

Born in Philadelphia, Corbett is a graduate of Lebanon Valley College and St. Mary's University School of Law and served as a captain in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard.

He served in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard's 28th Infantry Division from 1971 to 1984, rising to the rank of captain.

Corbett's career has been split between private practice and civil service.

Corbett began his career as an assistant district attorney in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in 1976.

He began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in Pittsburgh's Allegheny County in 1976.

Corbett then joined the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, serving from 1980 to 1983, upon entering private practice.

After three and a half years, he was hired in 1980 as an assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

In 1983, Corbett entered private practice as an associate partner at Rose, Schmidt, Hasley & DiSalle.

In 1988 Corbett was first elected to public office as a Commissioner in the Pittsburgh suburb of Shaler, before serving as the United States Attorney for Western Pennsylvania from 1989 to 1993 in the George H. W. Bush administration.

From 1988 and 1989, Corbett won his first election as a township commissioner in the Pittsburgh suburb of Shaler Township.

In 1988, a judge appointed him to monitor the Allegheny County jail while it was under the court's supervision.

In 1989, Senators John Heinz and Arlen Specter recommended to President Bush that he nominate Corbett as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Corbett served in the post until May 1993, when he was dismissed by President Bill Clinton.

Corbett then returned to private practice, also serving as an adviser to the gubernatorial campaign of Tom Ridge.

Following Ridge's victory, Corbett served on a number of state commissions including the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, which he served as chairman.

In 1995, Corbett was appointed to fill the remainder of Ernie Preate's term as Attorney General of Pennsylvania, until 1997.

In 1995, Corbett was appointed to the position of State Attorney General by Governor Ridge to fill the remainder of the term left by the conviction of Ernie Preate.

As a condition of his Senate confirmation, Senate Democrats required him to pledge that he would not run for re-election in 1996.

This is a common practice in Pennsylvania for appointments to elected offices.

During one of Corbett's first years as Pennsylvania's Attorney General, in September 1996, Corbett and others granted the Lehigh Carbon Community College and the Cedar Crest EmergiCenter full membership of the Drugs Don't Work Here (DDWH) Program.

The DDWH Program is a program that assesses substance abuse in the workplace.

Three months later in December, Corbett assured that a used-car dealer in Northampton County to pay violations for state laws, in which the dealer, Matthew Connolly, complied to pay the fines.

Corbett left office in 1997 and again went into the private sector, first as general counsel for Waste Management, Inc., then opening his own practice.

Corbett considered challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Arlen Specter in the 1998 primary, although he evidently did not run.

After early returns were reported, the Associated Press called the race in Democratic nominee Jim Eisenhower's favor, only to retract that call later as the numbers closed.

Corbett declared victory the following morning, having defeated Eisenhower by nearly 110,000 votes, winning 50.4 percent to 48.3 percent.

Jerry Pappert made the same pledge in 2003 when he succeeded Mike Fisher as State Attorney General.

While Attorney General, Corbett's office received multiple allegations of sexism and derogatory treatment of women.

One woman claimed that while working in the office that executives had shared pornographic emails between one another, forcing the office into a $15,000 settlement.

Corbett then reentered private practice and worked as the general counsel for Waste Management, Inc before being elected Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 2004.

Corbett was then elected to a second term in 2008, serving a total of two non-consecutive tenures as attorney general from 1995 to 1997, and 2005 to 2011.

Corbett was elected Governor of Pennsylvania when he defeated Democratic nominee Dan Onorato in the 2010 general election.

He was the second Pennsylvania attorney general to win the state's highest office.

Corbett lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Tom Wolf in the 2014 general election.