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Sheriff
Howard County Sheriff's Office, Maryland
| Appointee | Virginia Donnelly |
|---|---|
| Role | Sheriff |
| Organisation | Howard County Sheriff's Office, Maryland |
| Domain | Law Enforcement |
| Start | 1 December 1982 |
| End | 30 November 1990 |
| Notes | First woman elected sheriff in Maryland history; defeated incumbent in Democratic primary by 3-to-2 margin |
Virginia Donnelly was elected sheriff of Howard County, Maryland in 1982, becoming the first woman elected sheriff in the history of Maryland. At thirty, she was a political newcomer who trounced the incumbent by a 3-to-2 margin in the September Democratic primary and went on to win the November general election. At the time of her swearing-in, the National Sheriffs' Association recorded her as one of only seven women sheriffs serving in the United States.
The Maryland sheriff system has a long civil-process tradition; Howard County's office had not previously been held by a woman in the 200-plus-year history of the institution. Donnelly's competitive primary win against the sitting sheriff places her event firmly inside the modern competitive-election framing the dataset uses for this domain.
