1. John Kenneth Blackwell was born on February 28,1948 and is an American politician, author, and conservative activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Ohio State Treasurer, and Ohio Secretary of State.
47 Facts About Ken Blackwell
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Ken Blackwell was the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio in 2006, the first African American major-party candidate for governor of Ohio.
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Ken Blackwell is currently a Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment with The Family Research Council.
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Ken Blackwell currently sits as Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the Council For National Policy and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
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Ken Blackwell married his wife Rosa in 1969 while he was in college.
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Ken Blackwell is the nephew of Olympic long-jumper DeHart Hubbard, who was the first Black athlete to win a gold medal in an individual Olympic event, jumping more than 24 feet at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
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Ken Blackwell grew up in Cincinnati's Avondale and West End neighborhoods.
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Ken Blackwell attended Samuel Ach Junior High School and graduated from Hughes High School, where he met his future wife.
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Ken Blackwell attended Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio on a football scholarship.
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Ken Blackwell received a Bachelor of Science degree in psychology from Xavier in 1970 and his Master of Education degree, from Xavier, in 1971.
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Ken Blackwell has served as a trustee of Wilberforce University and Wilmington College.
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Ken Blackwell became involved in politics through the Charter Committee, Cincinnati's third party.
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Ken Blackwell was elected to and served on the Cincinnati city council.
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Ken Blackwell is a member of the Council For National Policy formed in 1981 and as of 2022 is Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the CNP.
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When Ken Blackwell began to consider statewide and national offices, he became a Republican.
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Ken Blackwell returned to Cincinnati to run for the first district seat in the United States House of Representatives which was being vacated by Tom Luken.
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Ken Blackwell had been appointed as US treasurer by President Bill Clinton.
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Ken Blackwell was elected treasurer in 1994 and was elected Ohio Secretary of State in 1998.
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That year, Blackwell considered a run for governor, but Ohio Republican Party chairman Robert T Bennett persuaded Blackwell to run for secretary of state instead, leaving the governorship open to Bob Taft.
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Ken Blackwell was national chairman of longtime friend Steve Forbes' presidential campaign in 2000.
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Ken Blackwell held the position of Chief Elections Officer, overseeing Ohio's elections process.
22.
In testifying to Congress in 2005 about the conduct of the 2004 election in Ohio, Ken Blackwell said that every Republican holder of statewide office in Ohio had been named as an honorary "co-chair" of the 2004 Bush campaign, that the position carried no responsibilities, and that previous Ohio Secretaries of State from both parties had held similar honorary positions.
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Ken Blackwell directed poll workers to refuse to distribute provisional ballots unless they were satisfied as to the voter's residence.
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Ken Blackwell said that he would go to jail rather than comply.
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Ken Blackwell appealed the decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
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Democratic members of the US House Committee on the Judiciary asked Ken Blackwell to explain irregularities in the Ohio election in two letters, and requested his presence at a Public Congressional Hearing.
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On December 27,2004, Blackwell requested a court order to protect him from being interviewed in the Moss v Bush case, a challenge of the presidential vote.
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Ken Blackwell fought a subpoena, arguing that the litigation was frivolous.
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The lawsuit was settled on March 28,2006, after the numbers were removed from the website, a registration process was enacted to view the data, and Ken Blackwell's office agreed to make monthly progress reports to the court.
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At that time, Ken Blackwell promised to retain only the last four digits of the Social Security number in the database to prevent future problems.
31.
Ken Blackwell's office apologized, saying that the release of the Social Security numbers was accidental and it attempted to recall all 20 of the disks.
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Ken Blackwell attributed the purchase to an unidentified financial manager at Credit Suisse First Boston who he said had, without his knowledge, violated his instructions to avoid potential conflict of interest.
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Ken Blackwell was the Republican nominee for Governor of Ohio in 2006.
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Ken Blackwell beat state Attorney General Jim Petro in the 2006 Republican primary.
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Ken Blackwell chose Ohio State Representative Tom Raga to be his running mate.
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Ken Blackwell was the first African American to be nominated by a major political party as a candidate for the Ohio governorship.
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Ken Blackwell has since taken a more conservative position of opposing abortions even in the case where the mother's life is at risk.
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Ken Blackwell was criticized by Petro, for declining to engage in three planned debates which had been organized by the Dayton Daily News and the City Club of Cleveland.
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Ken Blackwell raised $1.09 million between January 31,2006, and April 12,2006, from approximately 12,000 individuals and businesses.
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Several of the firms which have been awarded contracts from Ken Blackwell's office have been hired on to his gubernatorial campaign.
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Ken Blackwell was well supported by many religious leaders in Ohio both politically and financially; according to campaign filings, Ken Blackwell had received $25,031 from clergy, more than 27 times as much as Strickland.
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However, on January 16,2006, a group of 31 pastors, led by Rev Eric Williams, pastor of North Congregational Church in Columbus, Ohio wrote a 13-page letter to the IRS alleging that Ken Blackwell has enjoyed "special treatment" by two Ohio "mega-churches," World Harvest Church and Fairfield Christian Church.
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On May 14,2007, Ken Blackwell was appointed a senior fellow at the well-known conservative religious, political group Family Research Council.
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Ken Blackwell has earned an "A" rating from the NRA Political Victory Fund.
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Ken Blackwell is a member of the NRA's Board of Directors.
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Ken Blackwell is endorsed by the Ohio Gun Collectors Association, Ohioans for Concealed Carry and Gun Owners of America.
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Ken Blackwell announced his intentions to run in the 2009 RNC Chairmanship Election, but withdrew after the 4th round of voting.