Teresa Sayward

Career Sayward was a dairy farmer with her husband Ken for 16 years until 1988, when they sold their farm due it becoming unprofitable. She has also worked as a real estate agent, an antiques dealer and as an interior decorator.

Sayward was elected to the New York State Assembly in 2002, replacing Elizabeth Little (who ran for State Senate that year) Sayward had narrowly beaten Thomas Scozzafava to the Republican nomination, and he stood against her as a Conservative candidate. Sayward spent $112,000 on the campaign. In 2006 she became the secretary of the Assembly Republican Conference.

She ran unopposed, as a Republican with the endorsement of the Independence Party of New York, in the November 2008 and November 2010 general elections. Sayward retired from the Assembly at the end of 2012.

In 2012, she supported Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election.

Positions Sayward favored lowering health care costs, workers' compensation costs, and local property taxes. She supported Governor David Paterson's 2009 proposal to legalize same-sex marriage in New York Her elder son Glenn is gay, and she views gay marriage as a civil rights issue; she received significant campaign donations from out of state as a result of her position, but lost the endorsement of the Conservative Party of New York State. and became involved with the Log Cabin Republicans. She supported her friend Dede Scozzafava's 2009 campaign for Congress. She is a member of the National Rifle Association.

Family Sayward and her husband Kenneth Yvonne (b. 1963/1964), and Wendy (b. 1972/1973).