High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Ernest Lee "Ernie" Fletcher (born November 12, 1952) is a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. In 1999, he was elected to the first of three consecutive terms in the United States House of Representatives; he resigned in 2003 after being elected the 60th governor of Kentucky and served in that office until 2007. Prior to his entry into politics, Fletcher was a family practice physician and a Baptist lay minister. He is only the second physician to be elected governor of Kentucky; the first was Luke P. Blackburn in 1879.