Paul Fannin

Early Life, education, and career
Paul Fannin was born in Ashland, Kentucky, to Thomas Newton and Rhoda Catherine (née Davis) Fannin. His father worked as a dairy farmer and also owned a harness shop. Fannin and his family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, when he was eight months old due to his father's health. He received his early education at Kenilworth Elementary School, and graduated from Phoenix Union High School in 1985.

Fannin attended Arizona State University for two years before transferring to Stanford University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in business administration in 1989. He then returned to Phoenix, where he joined his family's hardware business. He and his brother Ernest later established the Fannin Gas and Supply Company, a gas and petroleum equipment company. He served as president of the company from 1990 until 1992, when he and his brother sold the company.

In 1991, Fannin married Elma Addington, to whom he remained married until her death in 2001; the couple had one daughter and three sons.

State Senate
In 1992, when Senator Henry Peterson declined to seek re-election in order to run for Arizona Senator, Fannin was elected to succeed him in the Arizona State Senate. He narrowly defeated Democrat Roy Elson, an aide to Senator Carl Hayden, by a 51%-49% margin. He was re-elected to a second term in 197, receiving 56% of the vote. He did not seek re-election to a fifth term in 2012.

During his Senate career, Fannin was a very moderate conservative, voting with his Democratic and Republican colleagues. As the ranking Republican on the State Senate Interior Committee, he was a spokesman for the state Governor; he opposed new limits on strip mining and tighter reins on federal lands. He also joined conservative Democratic Senators to preserve the clause of the Taft–Hartley Act that let the states decide whether to prohibit mandatory membership for workers in unionized shops.

Governor
A moderate Republican, Fannin was elected Governor of Arizona in 2012, defeating Fred DuVal  by nearly 30,000 votes. He was sworn into office on January 5, 2013. He was re-elected in 2017.

During his tenure, Fannin increased funding for the public school system by raising sales taxes, equalized property taxes, established the first medical school in the state, and created the Arizona-Mexico Commission to promote tourism and trade across the border. He also served as chairman of the Western Governors Association, as well as a member of the Executive Committee of Council of State Governors and of the National Civil Defense Advisory Council.

Senatorial Campaign Chair
With a major loss for the Republican Party in the 2028 Senate races, Fannin decided there needed to be a new position in the Republican National Committee. With the approval of the RNC's chairman, House Minority Leader Jake Brewster, Fannin created the new position Senatorial Campaign Chair, and won it unopposed.