Stephen Christopher Suprun Jr.

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Stephen Christopher Suprun Jr. (born March 5, 1974) is a firefighter and paramedic. He was an openly faithless elector in the 2016 election when he refused to cast his vote in the Electoral College (Texas) for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice-President.

Contents

Early life

Suprun was born in Richmond, Virginia. Suprun is an alumnus of George Mason University where he majored in economics. He served as both a volunteer and paid firefighter/paramedic from 1992 until today. Suprun also taught for The George Washington University and US Secret Service. Suprun has published dozens of articles on fire and EMS response. [1]

Faithless elector

A Republican elector from Texas in the 2016 United States presidential election, Suprun announced in an op-ed for The New York Times on December 5, 2016, that he was withholding his Electoral College votes for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President. [2] Suprun ultimately cast ballots for John Kasich and Carly Fiorina for president and vice president, respectively. [3] Suprun received death threats for his decision not to vote for Trump and Pence. [4] [5]

Political career

He was a delegate to multiple state Republican conventions in both Texas and Virginia. He ran unsuccessfully for the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Directors [6] after serving as a Special Assistant to both Republican Governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore. Democrats attempted to recruit him to run for Congress in North Texas against Pete Sessions [7] and later Van Taylor. [8]

He filed as a Precinct Chair for the Dallas Democratic Party, running unopposed in the 2020 election. [9]

Suprun ran in the 2018 special election for the 27th congressional district as an independent. The race took place on June 30, 2018. He received 0.14% of the vote, with 51 votes out of over 36,000 cast. [10]

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References

  1. "EMS and Fire Articles by Suprun". emsspeaker.com. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  2. Suprun, Christopher (2016-12-05). "Opinion | Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2019-11-30.
  3. Svitek, Patrick; Blanchard, Bobby; Swaby, Aliyya (December 19, 2016). "Texas electors cast 36 votes for Trump, 1 for Kasich and 1 for Ron Paul". The Texas Tribune . Retrieved April 21, 2021.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  4. Wilonsky, Robert (December 6, 2016). "Texas elector Chris Suprun talks about becoming an 'a-word' just because he won't vote for Trump". The Dallas Morning News . Retrieved April 21, 2021.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  5. Tempey, Nathan (December 15, 2016). "Electoral College Dissenters Deluged With Death Threats". Gothamist . Retrieved April 21, 2021.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
  6. Wee, Eric L. (1999-10-28). "SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION DIRECTOR". Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286 . Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  7. "TX-32 just got VERY interesting: Chris Suprun considering running against Pete Sessions!". Daily Kos. Retrieved 2019-12-04.
  8. "Plano lawyer Lulu Seikaly latest Democrat to challenge Republican Van Taylor for Congress". Dallas News. 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  9. "Dallas County, Texas Democratic Party | Precinct Chair Filings 2020". dallasdemocrats.org. Retrieved 2019-12-13.
  10. "Texas' 27th Congressional District special election, 2018". Ballotpedia . Retrieved April 21, 2021.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)