This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedia's deletion policy. Please share your thoughts on the matter at this article's deletion discussion page. |
Thomas Dixon | |
---|---|
Personal details | |
Born | Thomas Alan Dixon 1951/1952(age 69–70) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Signature | |
Thomas Alan Dixon [1] (born 1952/53) is an American pastor and political activist. Born in Chicago, he entered the U.S. Navy and worked several jobs before serving time in prison. Following his release, he became a prominent political activist and was the Democratic nominee in the 2016 United States Senate election in South Carolina.
Dixon grew up in the housing projects of Chicago's South Side. He began dealing drugs and using them himself at the age of 15. In 1983, Dixon joined the United States Navy, serving as a hospital corpsman and surgical technician. He served in the Navy for five years before being honorably discharged due to multiple failed drug tests. [2] After being discharged, Dixon worked in several fields, including as a loan officer and for the United States Census Bureau. In 1997, his wife separated from him due to his addiction. [3] [4]
In 1999, Dixon was arrested for breach of trust; he served eight months in the Berkeley County Detention Center and two years in prison. After being released in 2001, he gave up drugs and alcohol, reunited with his wife, and began work as a restaurant cook before being laid off in 2011. Dixon later worked at a Walmart deli during the 2012 Christmas season, but was not recalled to regular employment because of his criminal arrest record from 12 years earlier. [3]
Dixon co-founded an activist group known as The Coalition - People United To Take Back Our Community. [4] [5] Dixon founded the Summerville Christian Fellowship, and pastored it from 2005 until 2012. [6] In 2017, Dixon was elected to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence national Board of Directors [7] and, in 2018, he was awarded the Wiley A. Branton Award by the National Bar Association for his work to end gun violence. [8]
In February 2016, Dixon declared his intent to run in the United States Senate election in South Carolina, 2016. [4] [2] He was unopposed in the Democratic primary and was also nominated by the Green Party. [9] Dixon lost in the general election to incumbent Republican Senator Tim Scott, and he received 37% of the vote, coming in second place out of four candidates. [10] [11]
Dixon ran for Mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina in 2019. [12] He lost the election.
Dixon supports quality public education, wages that match the current cost of living, quality accessible housing, universal healthcare and protection of our natural resources, as well as ending gun violence, over-aggressive policing and racial profiling. [4]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Republican | Tim Scott | 1,241,609 | 60.6% | |
Democratic | Thomas Dixon | 757,022 | 36.9% | |
Libertarian | Bill Bledsoe | 37,482 | 1.8% | |
American | Michael Scarborough | 11,923 | 0.6% | |
N/A | Write-Ins | 1,857 | 0.1% |
Dixon and his wife, Vanessa, have two children: Jason and Jasmine. [15]
Joseph Patrick Riley Jr. is an American politician who was the Mayor of Charleston, South Carolina. He was one of the longest serving mayors in the United States that is still living, having served 10 terms starting on December 15, 1975, and ending on January 11, 2016.
Henry Dargan McMaster is an American politician and attorney who is serving as the 117th governor of South Carolina since January 24, 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Burnet Rhett Maybank was a three-term US senator, the 99th governor of South Carolina, and mayor of Charleston, South Carolina. He was the first governor from Charleston since the American Civil War (1861-1865) and one of only twenty people in United States history to have been elected mayor, governor, and United States senator. During his tenure in the Senate, Maybank was a powerful ally of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His unexpected death on September 1, 1954, from a heart attack, led to Strom Thurmond being elected senator.
The 1st congressional district of South Carolina is a coastal congressional district in South Carolina, represented by Republican Nancy Mace since January 3, 2021. She succeeded Democrat Joe Cunningham, having defeated him in the 2020 election. Cunningham was the first Democrat to represent the district since the 1980s.
Robert Ford is an American politician who served as a Democratic member of the South Carolina Senate since 1993, representing District 42, which is located in Charleston. From 1974 to 1992, he served as a member of the Charleston City Council.
Francis Lewis Cardozo was an American clergyman, politician, and educator. When elected in South Carolina as Secretary of State in 1868, he was the first African American to hold a statewide office in the United States.
Timothy Eugene Scott is an American politician and businessman. He has served as the junior United States senator for South Carolina since 2013. A Republican, Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Governor Nikki Haley in 2013. He retained his seat after winning a special election in 2014 and was elected to a full term in 2016.
The 2016 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of South Carolina, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. Both major parties held their primaries on June 14.
The 2014 United States Senate election in South Carolina took place on November 4, 2014, concurrently with a special election for South Carolina's other Senate seat, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
A special election for South Carolina's 1st congressional district was held on May 7, 2013, to fill the seat following the resignation of U.S. Representative Tim Scott, who was appointed to the United States Senate by Governor Nikki Haley to fill the seat previously held by Jim DeMint. DeMint resigned from the Senate on January 1, 2013, to accept a position as president of The Heritage Foundation.
Robert Goodwyn Rhett (1862–1939) was the fiftieth mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, completing two terms from 1903 to 1911. From 1916–1918, he served as president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States.
A general election was held in the U.S. state of South Carolina on November 4, 2014. All of South Carolina's executive officers were up for election as well as both United States Senate seats, and all of South Carolina's seven seats in the United States House of Representatives.
On April 4, 2015, Walter Scott, a 50-year old black man, was fatally shot by Michael Slager, a local police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. Slager had stopped Scott for a non-functioning brake light. Slager was charged with murder after a video surfaced showing him shooting Scott from behind while Scott was fleeing, which contradicted Slager's report of the incident. The racial difference led many to believe that the shooting was racially motivated, generating a widespread controversy.
On June 17, 2015, a white supremacist terrorist mass shooting occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, in which nine African Americans were killed during a Bible study at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Among those people who were killed was the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney. This church is one of the oldest black churches in the United States, and it has long been a center for organizing events which are related to civil rights.
The 2018 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 6, 2018, to elect the Governor of South Carolina. Incumbent Republican Governor Henry McMaster, who took office after Nikki Haley resigned to become U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, ran for election to a full term. The primary was held on June 12, with the Democrats nominating State Representative James E. Smith Jr. McMaster failed to win a majority of the vote, and then defeated John Warren in the Republican runoff on June 26. In the general election, McMaster defeated Smith, winning election to a full term.
The 2018 United States Senate election in Florida was held on November 6, 2018, alongside a gubernatorial election, elections to the U.S. House of Representatives and other state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator Bill Nelson ran for re-election to a fourth term, but was narrowly defeated by Republican Governor Rick Scott. The election was the closest Senate race in the state's history.
The 2020 United States Senate election in South Carolina was held on November 3, 2020, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of South Carolina, concurrently with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate, elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.
Joseph Kendrick Cunningham is an American politician, lawyer, and former engineer who served as the U.S. representative from South Carolina's 1st congressional district from 2019 to 2021. The district includes much of South Carolina's share of the Atlantic Coast, from Charleston to Hilton Head Island.
The 2022 South Carolina gubernatorial election will take place on November 8, 2022, to elect the governor of South Carolina. Incumbent Republican Governor Henry McMaster took office on January 24, 2017 upon the resignation of Nikki Haley and was elected to a full term in his own right in 2018. He is running for re-election for a second full term in office.
The 2022 United States House of Representatives elections in South Carolina will be held on November 8, 2022, to elect the seven U.S. representatives from the state of South Carolina, one from each of the state's seven congressional districts. The elections will coincide with other elections to the House of Representatives, elections to the United States Senate and various state and local elections.