Deidre Henderson

Deidre Marie Hulse Henderson is serving as lieutenant governor of the state of Utah. She and Governor Spencer Cox were elected in 2020.

Deidre met her husband, Gabe, while a student at Brigham Young University. While she raised her five children, she and her husband ran a small business. She became the political director and campaign manager for former Congressman Jason Chaffetz. She also served in the Utah Senate from January 2013 to January 2021. She ran unsuccessfully in 2017 to replace Chaffetz after he retired.

In BYU's Y Magazine, Henderson said “I did what I swore I would never do, and that was get married after my freshman year at BYU [in 1994].” She had to quit school and work two jobs to put her husband through school.[1] “After years of BYU Independent Study classes, the lieutenant governor is now just 14 credit hours shy of her bachelor’s. She recently fulfilled an internship requirement by serving as the state’s No. 2 executive.”[2]

“She says she used to feel ashamed she didn’t have a degree but doesn’t feel that way, anymore. ‘I know I am not the only woman who has had to put my education and goals on the back burner to take care of my family,’ Lt. Gov. Henderson says.”[3]

Henderson graduated in December 2021. She commended schools like Utah Valley University and Southern Utah University for opening child care centers for college students with kids and called for institutions to make it easier for nontraditional students like her to get a higher education.[4] 

She is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.