Governor Research Assignment
Ralph Northam is the 73rd governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He was born in the town of Nassawadox on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on September 13, 1959. He became the first Eastern Shore native to become governor of Virginia since Henry A. Wise took office in 1856. Northam graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.
Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army, where he served for 8 years and eventually rose to the rank of major. He attended Eastern Virginia Medical School and later traveled to San Antonio for a pediatric residency, where he ended up meeting his wife, Pamela, a pediatric occupational therapist at the same hospital.
Northam did his residencies at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and served as chief neurological resident at John Hopkins Hospital. While in the army, he served as a doctor in Germany, treating soldiers who were wounded in Operation Desert Storm.
Northam first ran for office in 2007 in the 6th senate district, he was unopposed for democratic nomination, and on Nov. 6, 2007, defeated two-term Republican incumbent Nick Rerras. He was re-elected in 2011 after defeating Ben Loyola Jr.
Northam served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 2014–2018 before assuming office as governor of Virginia in January 2018.
In 2017, in a debate against republican governor candidate Ed Gillespie, Northam expressed wanting to have universal background checks on firearm purchases for the state of Virginia.
In 2020, he unfortunately ended laws restricting woman’s rights to direct her health care, and has in the past also made statements about leaving it up to the woman if a baby who was aborted ended up staying alive after the failed abortion.
As far as recent issues faced as governor, he is in the process of working with other Virginia Democratic lawmakers of making marijuana legal, and has also expressed a desire to end the death penalty in the state of Virginia.
