104 Facts About Dan Cox

Daniel Lewis Cox was born on August 9,1974 and is an American politician and lawyer who was a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates representing the fourth district from 2019 to 2023.

Dan Cox was the unsuccessful Republican nominee in the 2022 Maryland gubernatorial election, which he lost in a landslide, and had been endorsed by Donald Trump.

In 2024, Cox unsuccessfully ran for the US House of Representatives in Maryland's 6th congressional district, losing to former state delegate Neil Parrott in the Republican primary election.

Dan Cox was born in Washington, DC, on August 9,1974, as one of ten children.

Dan Cox initially lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, but his family moved north to Frederick County after his father, a minister, took a job there.

Dan Cox grew up on a farm near Taneytown, Maryland.

Dan Cox enrolled at the Wellspring Christian Family Schools, a faith-based home-school organization which was founded by his father, as a child.

Dan Cox attended Mount St Mary's University from 1992 to 1995 and later attended the University of Maryland Global Campus, where in 2002 he earned a bachelor's degree in government and politics.

Dan Cox attended Regent University School of Law where in 2006 he earned a JD degree with distinction.

Dan Cox has been a member of the Maryland State Bar Association since 2006 and was a sole practitioner outside of Emmitsburg, Maryland.

Dan Cox is a member of the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has been described as an anti-LGBTQ organization and was designated a hate group in February 2017 by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Dan Cox served as a Captain in the Civil Air Patrol.

Dan Cox says he has been active in politics since 1980, when he campaigned with his parents for Ronald Reagan.

Dan Cox worked on the 1996 presidential campaign of Alan Keyes and as an aide to former US Representative Roscoe Bartlett.

Dan Cox was the Republican nominee for Dorchester County Circuit Court Clerk in 2006, losing the race to Democratic nominee Michael L Baker.

Dan Cox ran on a platform that included establishing a division to help fathers gain visitation, ensuring mothers received child support, and refusing to issue licenses for same-sex marriages, which were not legal in Maryland at the time.

On February 1,2016, Dan Cox filed to run in 2016 in Maryland's 8th congressional district.

Dan Cox campaigned on imposing a 10 percent flat tax for incomes over $36,000 and eliminating payroll taxes, strengthening gun ownership rights, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and reducing funding and programs for the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Housing and Urban Development.

Dan Cox supported Ted Cruz in the 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries.

Dan Cox pledged to join the Freedom Caucus, a group of tea party supporters, if elected.

In September 2016, Dan Cox claimed that "far-left sign Nazis" were stealing campaign signs he posted alongside state highways, and posted on Twitter that he had urinated on the signs as a deterrent to prevent theft.

Dan Cox won the Republican primary with 44.4 percent of the vote.

In February 2018, Dan Cox announced that he would run for the Maryland House of Delegates in District 4.

Dan Cox ran on a platform that included cutting regulations, increasing immigration enforcement, and supporting gun rights.

Dan Cox campaigned on a platform that included lowering taxes, expanding Interstate 270, and supporting charter schools.

Dan Cox was sworn into the Maryland House of Delegates on January 9,2019.

Dan Cox was a member of the Judiciary Committee, serving on its family law and public safety subcommittees from 2019 to 2020 and its family and juvenile law and civil law and procedure subcommittees from 2021 to 2023.

From 2018 to 2021, Dan Cox served as the secretary of the Frederick County Republican Central Committee.

In November 2020, Dan Cox said that he was part of a Republican legal team observing the count of mail-in ballots in Philadelphia during the 2020 United States presidential election.

Dan Cox helped arrange for buses to take constituents to the "Save America March" in Washington, DC, on January 6,2021; the rally preceded the violent attack on the US Capitol, in which a mob of Trump supporters disrupted Congress's counting of the electoral votes in a failed attempt to keep Trump in power.

The Frederick County Democratic Central Committee began a letter-writing campaign calling for Dan Cox to be expelled from the House of Delegates for his false claims.

In late June 2021, Dan Cox filed paperwork to run for governor in 2022, and formally announced his candidacy on July 4,2021.

Dan Cox launched his campaign with a campaign rally in Cambridge on August 6,2021.

Dan Cox picked Gordana Schifanelli, an Eastern Shore lawyer, as his running mate.

On November 22,2021, Dan Cox received the endorsement of former president Donald Trump.

Ahead of the primary election, Dan Cox threatened lawsuits seeking to invalidate mail-in ballots.

Some political observers said before the primary that Dan Cox would have publicly doubted the results if he had lost to Kelly Schulz.

Dan Cox denied receiving any support from the DGA, saying that he had "nothing to do with the ad purchase".

Dan Cox won the Republican primary on July 19,2022, defeating Schulz with 52.0 percent of the vote.

At his victory party, Dan Cox took photos with and accepted a gift from a young man who introduced himself as a member of the Maryland Proud Boys.

Dan Cox deactivated his account on Gab, a website that has been described as a social media haven for white supremacists and neo-Nazis and was used by the perpetrator of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, on which he had more than 1,000 posts.

Dan Cox was defeated by Democratic nominee Wes Moore in the general election on November 8,2022.

Dan Cox initially declined to concede after the election was called for Moore by various national news outlets, believing that there was still a path to victory, but called Moore the next day to concede the election.

Schifanelli later said that Dan Cox blamed her for their loss and that the running mates rarely spoke to each other during the campaign, with their relationship souring well before the general election.

In September 2022 court papers and a hearing, Dan Cox argued that the board lacked the authority to begin tabulating ballots before election day.

Dan Cox appealed to the Appellate Court of Maryland, which denied his request to halt the counting of mail-in ballots.

In February 2023, the US Supreme Court declined to hear Dan Cox's challenge, letting the ruling stand without comment.

Dan Cox did not commit to accepting the results of the election with mail-in ballots being counted early.

Ahead of the election, Dan Cox called on his supporters to "monitor" the state's election drop boxes, alleging without evidence that the drop boxes were "regularly misused and stuffed with nefarious ballots".

Also in February 2023, Wicomico County executive Julie Giordano nominated Cox to serve as special counsel for the county.

Dan Cox was scheduled to join the county council meeting to discuss any questions and concerns councilmembers had about his nomination, but was not present during the session.

In June 2023, Judge Stephanie A Gallagher denied a motion to dismiss the charges against Krop, in which Cox alleged that the indictment was "politically motivated" and questioned the Ukrainian citizenship of the lead ATF agent in the case.

Jenkins' attorneys criticized Dan Cox's motion, saying that he was employing "inconsistent, even hostile, defense strategies" and asking to be tried separately from Krop, which was granted on August 31,2023.

In May 2024, following the jury's guilty verdict in the Trump hush money trial, Dan Cox called on the Maryland Republican Party to censure former governor Larry Hogan for calling on elected officials to not "pour fuel on the fire with more toxic partisanship" amid the ruling.

In November 2024, after Trump won the 2024 presidential election, Dan Cox told The Daily Record that he was being considered for US Attorney for the District of Maryland.

In May 2023, Dan Cox said he was considering a run for Congress in Maryland's 6th congressional district in 2024, seeking to succeed outgoing US Representative David Trone.

Dan Cox was seen as a frontrunner, alongside former state delegate Neil Parrott, in the Republican primary, during which he sought to associate himself with former president Donald Trump, calling the ongoing criminal cases against Trump a "witch hunt" and continuing to promote disproven conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was marred by fraud, and ran on a platform including immigration, crime, and opposing COVID-19 pandemic health restrictions.

Dan Cox was defeated in the Republican primary election on May 14,2024, placing second behind Parrott with 30.1 percent of the vote.

In February 2021, Dan Cox joined delegates Kathy Szeliga and Sid Saab at a protest against abortion at the Maryland State House.

Dan Cox cosponsored several bills that would prohibit abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected, including the Maryland Fetal Heartbeat Protection Act.

In June 2022, Cox praised the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey.

Dan Cox declined to say whether he would support federal restrictions on abortions, including a bill introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Dan Cox rejects the scientific consensus on climate change and opposes tax subsidies for clean energy programs.

Dan Cox voted against the Climate Solutions Now Act of 2021, a proposed climate bill that would have included a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to a level that is 50 percent lower than it was in 2006 by 2030.

Dan Cox voted against the bill when it was re-introduced in the 2022 legislative session.

In September 2022, Dan Cox said he would support repealing the state's ban on fracking.

In October 2022, Dan Cox told Lancaster Farming that he supported efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay.

Dan Cox said he considered reducing effluent from bay area sewage systems and ending silt pouring from the Conowingo Dam to be a "top priority".

Dan Cox later challenged the legality of Hogan's statewide mask mandate.

Later in the month, Dan Cox posted a tweet promoting a conspiracy theory linking the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the coronavirus pandemic.

In October 2020, Dan Cox provided legal representation for a Harford County man who was arrested for not wearing a mask at a polling place, arguing that the pair were only ordered to wear masks once they were inside the facility and election staff learned that they were Republicans.

In January 2021, Dan Cox cosponsored the Consent of the Governed Act, which would remove the governor's ability to unilaterally declare a state of emergency and would require the governor to form a special session to extend any state of emergency declaration for longer than fourteen days, which would require two-thirds approval from both chambers of the Maryland General Assembly.

In February 2021, Dan Cox proposed a resolution that would immediately end Hogan's coronavirus emergency declaration.

In June 2021, Dan Cox called on Hogan to end the state's coronavirus emergency declaration.

In January 2022, Dan Cox attended a rally against vaccine mandates in Annapolis, Maryland.

In September 2022, Dan Cox said that he was "pro-vaccine" but does not believe in mandates.

In February 2022, Dan Cox introduced articles of impeachment against Governor Larry Hogan for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dan Cox supported a bill that would require people convicted of a violent crime to register information and a photo with the state, and opposed a bill prohibiting people convicted of animal abuse from adopting or buying another pet.

In June 2022, Dan Cox released a crime plan on Truth Social that called for allowing "modified stop and frisk" policies and enacting broken windows policing.

Dan Cox has expressed interest in establishing a "prosecutorial board" to work with elected leaders in Baltimore and other crime-challenged areas to keep violent criminals in prisons.

Dan Cox said he was open to using a receivership to take control of Baltimore to help combat rising crime.

Dan Cox compared the FBI search to the actions of the Stasi, East Germany's secret police.

In September 2022, Dan Cox said he would appoint more parents to the Maryland State Board of Education.

In October 2022, Dan Cox promised to create an office for parents' rights on his first day in office and said that he supported mandating agriculture education in schools.

In February 2018, following the Parkland high school shooting, Dan Cox said he opposed laws that ban assault weapons and restrict gun ownership, instead endorsing legislation to arm teachers and school resource officers.

In 2019, Dan Cox said he opposed a bill to abolish the state's Handgun Permit Review Board.

Dan Cox voted against legislation that would increase security measures at firearms stores.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day in April 2021, Dan Cox said he would vote against a bill to allow minors to consent to some health care services, comparing it to the infringement of "the rights of parents" by Nazis.

Dan Cox defended his remarks in a letter accusing his colleagues of twisting the words he used during an emotionally-charged floor debate to gain partisan advantage, and offered no apology for his comments.

Dan Cox said that he would support the full enforcement of existing laws and passage of Kate's Law, which would establish mandatory minimum five-year prison sentences for any immigrant convicted of reentering the country after being deported.

Dan Cox opposed HB892, a bill that would require a warrant in order for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to search through the state's driver's license database.

Dan Cox opposed the Maryland Highway Safety Act of 2013, which allowed undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses.

Dan Cox strongly opposed the Dignity Not Detention Act, which would have required people arrested for federal civil crimes to be detained in federal facilities rather than in state or local facilities.

In 2021, Dan Cox voted against a bill to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia.

In 2022, Dan Cox voted against legislation that would create a ballot referendum to legalize recreational marijuana in Maryland, and another bill that would regulate marijuana possession should the referendum pass in November.

In October 2020, Dan Cox made a post on his Twitter account that contained hashtags related to the QAnon conspiracy theory.

In June 2022, Dan Cox ambushed a rally for gubernatorial candidate Kelly Schulz, where Governor Larry Hogan called him a "QAnon conspiracy theorist".

In July 2022, Dan Cox said that he would ban transgender students from competing on girls' sports team in schools.

In September 2019, Dan Cox introduced a bill to add "dignity of the human body" to the state's hate crime statute to cover spitting on the victim.

In March 2021, Dan Cox voted against HB667, a bill that would abandon "Maryland, My Maryland" as Maryland's state song.

In 2022, Dan Cox was one of 21 legislators to vote against a bill that would raise the state's minimum marriage age from 15 to 17, saying in an interview that a pregnant 16-year-old should be allowed to marry the father.

Dan Cox said he would support providing businesses with increased tax credits, including a "dollar-for-dollar" tax credit to help employers cover the costs of paying for paid family and medical leave.

Dan Cox supports eliminating the state income tax and would support cutting the state's corporate tax rate, personal income tax rate, and property tax rates.

Dan Cox has been married to his wife, Valerie, since 1996 and has ten children.