In 2007, Ramsey garnered the support all of the GOP senators and one Democratic senator, Rosalind Kurita of Clarksville, in the vote for speakership of the Senate. He won with 18 votes to 15 for Wilder. He is the first Republican to serve as speaker of the Senate in 140 years. Ramsey appointed Kurita as speaker "pro tempore" in return for her support. Ramsey was reelected as speaker of the Senate of the 106th General Assembly in 2009 by a vote of 19–14, making him the longest serving Republican lieutenant governor in Tennessee state history, and the only one since the speaker was granted the additional title of lieutenant governor by state statute.