elaine marshall

In 1996, Elaine Marshall became the first woman elected to a statewide executive branch office in North Carolina. She immediately established herself as a competent administrator with an eye toward reform. She has received national recognitions for modernizing the Secretary of State’s office by introducing up to date technology and reducing red tape.

Since taking office, Elaine has cut the costs of doing business in North Carolina—helping small businesses create jobs and enabling free enterprise and capital formation. She has led the effort to reform North Carolina’s lobbying laws. Elaine remains committed to making public information transparent and accessible to businesses, investors and individuals. Her efforts have helped make North Carolina one of the most affordable places in the United States to do business.

The Secretary of State’s office today is a key law enforcement agency protecting consumers, investors, and charitable givers against fraud and scams. Elaine's commitment to protecting investors has led to long prison terms for criminals and has refunded over $1 billion from major Wall Street firms for misrepresentation to North Carolina investors. She also has received international recognition for her efforts protecting trademark holders, eliminating harmful and dangerous counterfeit goods and prosecuting counterfeiters.

In 2015, she served as President of the National Secretaries of State and received the Lillian’s List Courage Award. A longtime member of 4-H, in 2014 she was one of fourteen from across the country who was inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame.

In 1993-1994, Elaine served in the North Carolina Senate, where she was named Rookie of the Year and listed among Legislators to Watch by the News & Observer. In the Senate, she provided a powerful voice for improving healthcare in North Carolina. Elaine successfully shepherded North Carolina's Marital Rape Bill through the State Senate.

Elaine earned her law degree from Campbell University in 1981 and distinguished herself as a tough advocate for her clients in the courtroom. She began her law career defending victims of domestic violence when few lawyers would do so, co-founded a Rape Crisis Center in rural Harnett County, joined a grassroots lobbying effort to require insurance companies to cover mammograms and pap smears.

Elaine was previously a teacher and small business owner.

Born in rural Lineboro, Maryland, Elaine’s father was a farmer who served as a fire department officer following his active volunteer firefighter days and served on the local church board, while her mother taught music lessons and was the organist in the family’s small rural church for more than 60 years.