- Democratic Party presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton followed in the footsteps of her husband Bill, who was US president from 1993 to 2001. Unfortunately, she lost to Donald Trump in the November 2016 elections.
- Though Nelson Mandela's former wife Winnie never ran for the presidency, but she weilds an extremely influential and powerful figure in politics within the ruling African National Congress. Even in her husband's death, she remains a strong political pillar in the country.
- Janet Museveni has been the First Lady of Uganda since her husband Yoweri Museveni became president in 1986. She has been a Member of Parliament since 2006 and was recently appointed sport and education minister.
- In Nicaragua, Rosario Murillo has long been seen as a powerful influence on her husband, President Daniel Ortega. To this end, Ortega named his wife as his running mate when he sought re-election for a third term in November 2016.
- In Argentina, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner succeeded her husband Nestor Kirchner as president in 2007. Most analysts thought the two planned to take turns in the top office but Mr Kirchner died in 2010 before he could run again.
- In far away Guatemala, Sandra Torres divorced ex-president Alvaro Colom in order to run for the top office herself because the constitution bars close relatives of the president from succeeding them. Unfortunately she did not win but she still remains an infulentil political figure.
- In Honduras, Xiomara Castro ran for president in 2013 after the ousting of her husband Manuel Zelaya, whose love of cowboy hats she shares. She however narrowly lost to conservative candidate Juan Orlando Hernandez.
- Patience Jonathan, a former First Lady of Nigeria and the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan is a very powerful politician in Nigeria. Though she hasn't contested for any public office, she complements her husband's political clouth and she has served as a permanent secretary in her Bayelsa State.
- Philippines' former First Lady Imelda Marcos, whose husband Ferdinand was overthrown in 1986 after 21 years of rule, ran for the presidency in 1992, but finished fifth.
- Madam Fernandez is on a shortlist of very few women to succeed their husbands as president. She follows the footstepps of Isabel Martinez who became Argentine president after the death of her husband, Juan Peron 33-years before her.