Jennifer Duggan-Wright
Jennifer Kay Duggan-Wright is a former Leader of the Opposition in the Long Island state legislature. Duggan-Wright was chosen as Leader of the Opposition on May 17, 2003, when she was aged 34. She was the youngest person to lead the Conservative Party of Georgeland at either the federal or state level. On April 21, 2007, Duggan-Wright was chosen as the Conservative candidate for the federal House of Commons seat of Wilkes and resigned from the state legislature on May 4 to campaign, as it is not permitted to be a sitting state legislator while running for federal office.
Template:Prettytable |+Jennifer Duggan-Wright |-
|- |Position || Leader of the Long Island Opposition |- |Term in office || May 17, 2003-May 4, 2007 |- |Preceded by || Don Mitchell |- |Succeeded by || Jim Junkin |- |Political party || Conservative |- |Total time in office || 3y, 11m, 18d |- |Born || 20th December, 1968 |- |Spouse || Peter Duggan-Wright (married 2002) |}
Duggan-Wright was born in Emilypolis but moved to Dannyburg at the age of five. She was educated in the public system, and never attended university, having her first child when she was just seventeen. She subsequently became a single mother, and this led to a career as a family rights activist in the 1990s. She was elected to the Long Island state legislature as a Conservative in 2000, and in 2001 became Shadow Minister for Employment. In 2003, she was chosen as party leader after Don Mitchell's retirement; her election was as a compromise between senior shadow ministers Jim Junkin and Peter Connolly. Since taking office, Duggan-Wright has repositioned her party towards the centre. At the 2005 state election, Duggan-Wright managed to secure several more seats for her party, giving them as many seats as the government in the new legislature, elected by proportional representation. Duggan-Wright's leadership remained strong as her approval rating steadily climbed; many pundits predicted she would be able to win the 2009 election. However, in March 2007 she was offered preselection for a federal seat as part of the Conservative plan to recruit high-profile candidates to target marginal seats. She accepted the offer and resigned as leader, and from the legislature, on May 4 in order to become the Tory candidate. She was the first woman to lead the Tories in Long Island.
Duggan-Wright is considered one of the "New Tories"; younger, more socially liberal Conservatives serving to revitalise and modernise the party.
| Preceded by Don Mitchell |
Leader of the Long Island Opposition May 17, 2004 - May 4, 2007 |width="30%"|Succeeded by Jim Junkin |