Sheriff

Nancy Hove was elected sheriff of Pierce County, Wisconsin in November 2006 and took office in January 2007, becoming the first woman elected sheriff in Wisconsin's modern competitive-election era. She served for sixteen years across four terms, retiring at the end of 2022. For most of her tenure she was the only woman sheriff serving in the State of Wisconsin.

Why "modern competitive-election era"

The Wisconsin Women's Council records show women holding sheriff's positions in Wisconsin as early as the mid-1920s. However, Wisconsin had a sheriff term-limit law on the books from at least the 1940s into the 1950s prohibiting sheriffs from serving consecutive terms. The documented Wisconsin pattern during that era was for an outgoing sheriff to have his wife run for the office every other term, with the sheriff returning to office on the alternating cycle — a coordinated husband-wife rotation rather than a competitive selection by voters of either party on the candidate's own record.

The dataset's law-enforcement editorial rule excludes such term-limit-workaround marriages from first-woman entries for the same reason it excludes widow succession and wartime void-fill: the woman is on the ballot, but her election is a continuation of her husband's office, not a selection on her own merit. Hove's 2006 run had no such constraint — she was a career deputy and undersheriff who campaigned on her own record against male opponents in a competitive general election.

Background and tenure

Hove had served the Pierce County Sheriff's Office for over two decades before her 2006 election. In her first campaign she was reportedly told by a community member that "a woman could not be sheriff" — a line she made part of her swearing-in remarks. She held the office for four consecutive terms, retiring at the end of 2022.

In 2021 she received the Wisconsin Sheriffs' & Deputy Sheriffs' Association First Responder of the Year award.

Subsequent Wisconsin first-woman events

Denita R. Ball was elected sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin in November 2022 — the first woman sheriff in the largest Wisconsin county and the first African-American woman sheriff in Wisconsin history. Hove and Ball overlapped briefly in office. Ball's Milwaukee County event is recorded as historical context inside this dossier rather than as a separate Wisconsin state first.

Sources

• Republican Eagle — Meet Nancy Hove, Pierce County sheriff
• Republican Eagle — Sheriff Nancy Hove has special place in Pierce County
• DrydenWire — Sheriff Nancy Hove Recognized As The 2021 First Responder Of The Year
• Wisconsin Women's Council — Wisconsin Women Roared into Public Office in the 1920s (term-limit-workaround background)