Inos began her career in
education as a
bilingual teacher at schools on
Saipan and
Rota in 1972. She chaired the Constitutional Convention's committee on
finance.
Politics Inos became the
running mate for former
Governor Lorenzo I. De Leon Guerrero in the 1997 gubernatorial election. Inos candidacy for Lieutenant Governor of the Northern Mariana Islands marked the first time that a female candidate had sought that particular office. Guerrero and Inos were defeated in the 1997 election by fellow
Republican Pedro Tenorio.
Benigno Fitial, who called Inos one of his
mentors, ran for governor in 2001 with Rita Inos as his running mate for lieutenant governor. The Fitial-Inos ticket ran under the
Covenant Party banner, which Fitial had founded in 2001, the same year as the general election. Fitial explained his choice of Inos for his running mate in 2009, saying, ''"I relied on her for
advice on
public policy issues concerning education. This is why I chose her to be my running mate in the 2001 CNMI general elections. Our plan was for me to focus on
economic development, while she handled important education issues. This is also why I nominated her to the Northern Marianas College's Board of Regents, where she served until she passed away."'' Benigno Fitial and Rita Inos lost to Republican
Juan N. Babauta in the 2001 general election. Fitial would later be elected governor in the
2005 general election with a different running mate,
Timothy P. Villagomez. Inos'
brother-in-law,
Eloy Inos, became the lieutenant governor of the Northern Mariana Islands in 2009, following Villagomez's resignation for a corruption conviction. ==Death==