Susan Bysiewicz is currently serving her first term as Connecticut’s 109th Lieutenant Governor.
Susan’s top priority is growing good-paying jobs and investing in education and job training. As the Chair of the Governor’s Council on Women and Girls. Also, she has fought for pay-equity, reproductive freedoms, and gender equality.
Susan was a leading voice for Connecticut residents and small businesses while she served as Secretary of the State from 1999 to 2011. As Secretary of the State, she helped thousands of businesses grow, registered thousands of voters, cut bureaucratic red tape, honored veterans, and fought to keep elections fair.
As a state representative in the Connecticut General Assembly, representing the towns of Middletown, Middlefield, and Durham, Bysiewicz wrote legislation to ban dangerous “drive-through” mastectomies and ensure that women being treated for breast cancer had proper care. She wrote the law to ban lobbyists from giving gifts to legislators.
As a business lawyer and a job creator, she has helped over sixty companies access millions of dollars in capital, expand their businesses, and create thousands of jobs in Connecticut.
Susan was raised as the proud granddaughter of immigrants who came to Connecticut from Poland and Greece with nothing but hopes for a better future. After many years of factory work, they saved enough to buy a farm in Middletown that became Bysiewicz’s childhood home. Growing up and working on the farm, she and her siblings learned the values of hard work, education, and persistence.
A graduate of Middletown High School, Yale University and Duke Law School, Susan is the author of Ella: A Biography of Ella Grasso, Connecticut’s 83rd governor.
Bysiewicz and her husband David Donaldson reside in Middletown.