Dwight Holton

Last updated
Mary Ellen Glynn
​
(m. 2000)​
Dwight Holton
Dwight Holton.jpg
Portrait of Holton, c. 2010
United States Attorney for the
District of Oregon
In office
February 4, 2010 –October 7, 2011
Parents
Residence Southeast Portland, Oregon
Education
OccupationLawyer
Signature Dwight Holton signature.png

Dwight Carter Holton (born December 18, 1965) is an American lawyer and politician from Oregon. Born in Roanoke, Virginia, he was approximately four years old when his father, Linwood Holton, was elected governor, becoming the first Republican in one-hundred years to hold that office. The elder Holton, who ran on a platform of racial reconciliation, famously sent his children to majority-Black public schools in Richmond, following court-ordered integration.

Contents

After earning a degree at Brown University and spending a number of years working on Democratic political campaigns, Holton entered the University of Virginia School of Law. Following his graduation, he joined the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney. He spent over a decade prosecuting cases in Brooklyn and, later, Portland, Oregon, before being named interim United States Attorney for the District of Oregon in 2010. After a year-and-a-half in office, he left federal government service to seek the Democratic nomination for Oregon Attorney General in 2012. Despite being an early frontrunner in campaign fundraising, he lost his party's primary to Ellen Rosenblum.

Early life and family

Childhood and education

Holton was born on December 18, 1965, in Roanoke, Virginia, the fourth and youngest child of Virginia Harrison "Jinks" (née Rogers; 1925–2022) and Abner Linwood Holton Jr. (1923–2021), a prominent local attorney and Republican Party politician. He was named for former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had campaigned for his father during his unsuccessful gubernatorial run against Mills Godwin earlier in the year, and Episcopal bishop Robert Carter Jett, his great-grandfather. [1]

In 1969, Holton's father ran for Governor again, this time defeating William C. Battle, former United States Ambassador to Australia and son of former Governor John S. Battle. Shortly after he and his family moved to the state capital, Richmond, U.S. district court judge Robert R. Merhige Jr. decided the case Bradley v. Richmond School Board, ordering a limited busing program to integrate the city's public schools. Holton's parents made national headlines when they sent his older siblings: Tayloe, Anne, and Woody, to majority-Black schools near the Executive Mansion, in a show of public support for the move. [2] Holton started kindergarten at John B. Cary Elementary School the following year, to little fanfare. [3]

Holton moved with his family to northern Virginia in 1974, when his father accepted a job as Richard Nixon's Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations. While in high school, he served as a congressional page. [4] He graduated from Langley High School in 1983, after which he entered Brown University. [5] He received a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Ideology in 1987. [6]

Marriage

On September 22, 2000, Holton married Mary Ellen Glynn, a spokesperson for Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and former White House deputy press secretary under Bill Clinton, at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church in La Jolla, California. [7] The couple eventually settled in Southeast Portland, Oregon, in 2002, after Governor-elect Ted Kulongoski appointed Glynn as his communications director. [8] [9] They have two children, a son and a daughter.

Career

Democratic campaigns

Leaving Brown, Holton worked on Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential campaign and Doug Wilder's successful 1989 gubernatorial campaign, after which he continued on as an aide to Wilder. [10]

Federal prosecutor

Campaign for Attorney General

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Wilder</span> American politician (born 1931)

Lawrence Douglas Wilder is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 66th governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1994. He was the first African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state since the Reconstruction era, and the first African American ever elected as governor. He is currently a professor at the namesake Wilder School at Virginia Commonwealth University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mills Godwin</span> American politician

Mills Edwin Godwin Jr. was an American politician who was the 60th and 62nd governor of Virginia for two non-consecutive terms, from 1966 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1978. Godwin was the first person to be elected governor of any state as a Democrat and a Republican.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linwood Holton</span> American politician (1923–2021)

Abner Linwood Holton Jr. was an American politician and attorney. He served as the 61st governor of Virginia, from 1970 to 1974, and was the first elected Republican governor of Virginia of the 20th century. He was known for supporting civil rights, integration, and public investment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2005 Virginia gubernatorial election</span>

The 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election was held on November 8, 2005 to elect the Governor of Virginia. The Democratic nominee, Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine, the son-in-law to Linwood Holton, won the election. Virginia is the only state in the United States to prohibit governors from serving successive terms, meaning that the popular incumbent, Mark Warner, could not run for reelection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard H. Poff</span> American judge (1923–2011)

Richard Harding "Dick" Poff was an American politician and judge. He was first elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1952 from Virginia's 6th congressional district. An attorney and a Republican, he was given strong consideration for the United States Supreme Court by President Richard M. Nixon and was later appointed as a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. Caldwell Butler</span> American politician

Manley Caldwell Butler was an American lawyer and politician widely admired for his integrity, bipartisanship and courage. A native of Roanoke, Butler served his hometown and wider community first as a member of the Republican Party in the Virginia General Assembly (1962–1972) and later the United States House of Representatives (1972–1983).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Virginia gubernatorial election</span>

The 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election took place in Virginia on November 3, 2009. The incumbent Governor, Democrat Tim Kaine, was not eligible to run due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution, though others in the state's executive branch were not restricted. Republican Bob McDonnell was elected as Governor as part of a Republican sweep. Republican Bill Bolling was reelected as lieutenant governor, and Republican Ken Cuccinelli was elected as attorney general. The winners were inaugurated on January 16, 2010, and served until January 11, 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Holton</span> American lawyer, judge and politician

Anne Bright Holton is an American lawyer and judge who served as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2014 to 2016. She is married to United States Senator and former Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, the vice presidential running mate of Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Virginia elections</span>

The following offices were up for election in the United States Commonwealth of Virginia in the November 2009 general election:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Virginia gubernatorial election</span>

The 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 2013, to elect the governor of Virginia. The incumbent governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, was not eligible to run for re-election due to term limits established by the Virginia Constitution. Virginia is the only state that prohibits its governor from serving immediate successive terms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 Oregon elections</span>

On November 6, 2012, the U.S. state of Oregon held statewide general elections for four statewide offices, both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, and several state ballot measures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Rosenblum</span> American politician

Ellen F. Rosenblum is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the Oregon Attorney General since 2012. She is the first female state attorney general in Oregon's history, and previously was a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 2005 to 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 United States Senate election in Virginia</span>

The 2014 United States Senate election in Virginia was held on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2013 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election</span>

The 2013 Virginia lieutenant gubernatorial election took place on November 5, 2013, to elect the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia. The incumbent Lieutenant Governor, Republican Bill Bolling, had originally planned to run for Governor of Virginia in the 2013 gubernatorial election, but withdrew upon the entry of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1978 United States Senate election in Virginia</span>

The 1978 United States Senate election in Virginia was held on November 7, 1978. Incumbent Republican Senator William L. Scott did not run for re-election to a second term. Republican former Secretary of the Navy John Warner narrowly defeated Democratic Attorney General of Virginia Andrew P. Miller to succeed him. Originally, this election was a match between Republican Richard Obenshain and Miller, then Obenshain died in a plane crash, leaving the party in disarray. Warner was then nominated to run in Obenshain's place, and his victorious election thrust him into a thirty-year career in the United States Senate, which started with this election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Sarvis</span> American politician (born 1976)

Robert Christopher Sarvis is an American attorney. While attending law school, he was the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty; he also clerked for Judge E. Grady Jolly on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. In addition, he has been a software developer, being named by Google as a Grand Prize Winner for their Android Development challenge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1969 Virginia gubernatorial election</span>

In the 1969 Virginia gubernatorial election, incumbent Governor Mills E. Godwin, Jr., a Democrat, was unable to seek re-election due to term limits. A. Linwood Holton, Jr., an attorney from Roanoke, was nominated again by the Republican Party to run against former United States Ambassador to Australia, Democratic candidate William C. Battle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1965 Virginia gubernatorial election</span>

In the 1965 Virginia gubernatorial election, incumbent Governor Albertis Harrison, a Democrat, was unable to seek re-election due to term limits. Linwood Holton, an attorney from Roanoke, was nominated by the Republican Party to run against Democratic Lieutenant Governor of Virginia Mills Godwin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">S. Floyd Landreth</span> American politician

Sydney Floyd Landreth was an American lawyer, banker and Republican politician from Galax, Virginia who represented the 14th state senatorial district for two decades. He ran unsuccessfully for Governor of Virginia in 1945.

Virginia Harrison "Jinks" Rogers Holton was an American public servant who was the First Lady of Virginia from 1970 to 1974. She was a strong supporter of civil rights and integration during her tenure in the role.

References

  1. ↑ "Holtons Named Child Dwight After Ike". The Progress-Index . Associated Press. December 19, 1965. p. 24. Retrieved July 23, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  2. ↑ "Former Gov. A. Linwood Holton, a Republican whose actions helped break down racial barriers in the state, succumbs at 98". Richmond Free Press . November 4, 2021. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Governor's Son Enters Richmond Kindergarten". The Danville Register . Associated Press. August 31, 1971. Retrieved July 24, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  4. ↑ Gamarekian, Barbara (May 31, 1982). "Capitol Pages: Witnesses to History". The New York Times . p. A8. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  5. ↑ 1982 Shire: Products of Our Time. Vol. 18. Hunter Publishing Company. 1983. p. 109.
  6. ↑ "Liber Brunensis 1987". Brown University. 1987. p. 228. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Mary Ellen Glynn, Dwight Holton". The New York Times . September 24, 2000. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Governor-Elect Names Director". Statesman Journal . January 9, 2003. p. 1C. Retrieved July 24, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ Har, Janie (April 20, 2012). "Has Dwight Holton 'never set foot' in an Oregon courtroom?". PolitiFact . Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Former governor's son named to head campaign". The News Leader . Associated Press. August 1, 1990. p. A5. Retrieved July 24, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.