1. Isiah "Ike" Leggett was born on July 25,1944 and is an American politician from the US state of Maryland and former executive of Montgomery County, Maryland.
22 Facts About Ike Leggett
1. 2.
For two years, Ike Leggett served as the chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party before leaving that position to run for office .
3.
Ike Leggett was elected county executive of Montgomery County in 2006, the first African-American to hold that office.
4.
Ike Leggett was born on July 25,1944, in Deweyville, Texas, and grew up with twelve siblings in Alexandria, Louisiana.
5.
Ike Leggett attended Southern University in Baton Rouge, working through school as a groundskeeper in a work-study program and graduating in 1967.
6.
Ike Leggett led the on-campus civil rights movement while at the same time commanding the Southern University Reserve Officers' Training Corps unit.
7.
Ike Leggett was elected president of his class during his senior year and is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, the first intercollegiate fraternity established for African-Americans.
8.
Ike Leggett returned to Howard as a professor in their law school in 1976 and continued teaching at the law school through his election as county executive in 2006, except for a stint as a White House Fellow under President Jimmy Carter in 1977.
9.
Ike Leggett was re-elected to the seat three more times, and served three one-year terms as council president.
10.
In 2002, Ike Leggett declined to run for re-election to the county council.
11.
Ike Leggett was widely viewed as a potential running mate for Democratic nominee Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in that year's gubernatorial race.
12.
Ike Leggett's chairmanship was seen by some Democratic activists as important to maintaining the African-American base of the Maryland Democratic Party and rebuilding the party's strength following the 2002 gubernatorial loss.
13.
In December 2004, Ike Leggett left his position as chair of the Maryland Democratic Party to begin a campaign to replace Duncan as Montgomery County executive.
14.
Ike Leggett then faced Republican nominee Chuck Floyd and independent anti-tax advocate Robin Ficker in the general election.
15.
Ike Leggett carried 239 of the county's 241 voting precincts.
16.
Ike Leggett continued to advocate for the increase throughout his term.
17.
Ike Leggett dealt with the major local issue of a hiring site for day laborers from the city of Gaithersburg and the surrounding upper county area.
18.
Ike Leggett located a site for day laborer center on county-owned land with his first several months in office.
19.
Ike Leggett was unopposed in the 2010 Democratic Party primary for county executive.
20.
Ike Leggett won the Democratic nomination for a third term, gaining 45 percent of the vote to 33 percent for former county executive Doug Duncan and 22 percent for councilmember Phil Andrews, and winning 80 percent of county precincts.
21.
Ike Leggett declared before the passage of term limits in the county in 2016, that he would not run for re-election.
22.
Ike Leggett was elected as president of the Maryland Association of Counties in January 2015.