Thomas Dixon (politician)

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.

Thomas Dixon
Personal details
Born
Thomas Alan Dixon

1951/1952 (age 67–68)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Signature

Biography

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]

U.S. Senate campaign
Results by county of the 2016 U.S. Senate election. Counties won by Dixon are in blue.

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]

Mayoral campaign

Dixon ran for Mayor of North Charleston, South Carolina in 2019.[12] He lost the election.

Political positions

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]

Electoral history
United States Senate election in South Carolina, 2016[13][14]
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%

Personal life

Dixon and his wife, Vanessa, have two children: Jason and Jasmine.[15]

gollark: Yes.
gollark: We should ban coroutines. Only with strong government regulation can we prevent their misuse.
gollark: It's probably hard to give much help since this will mostly be down to whatever insanity the compiler does.
gollark: C#? This is Lua; are you offloading stuff to a remote server somehow?
gollark: Is trying to move it from multiple coroutines at once a very good idea?

References
  1. "Statement of Candidacy" (pdf). Federal Election Commission. March 25, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  2. Moredock, Will (September 28, 2016). "Thomas Dixon gives us a choice". Charleston City Paper. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  3. Berry Hawes, Jennifer (May 18, 2013). "Offenders seek second chance Society hesitant to forgive former convicts". The Post and Courier. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  4. Rindge, Brenda (February 21, 2016). "Thomas Dixon to challenge U.S. Sen. Tim Scott". The Post and Courier. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  5. Volsky, Igor (June 24, 2015). "This South Carolina Pastor Totally Nails How Commonplace Racism Inspired Dylann Roof". ThinkProgress. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  6. Gutierrez, Silvana (August 17, 2016). "Elections Central: Race for the Senate in South Carolina". Modern Treatise. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
  7. http://www.bradycampaign.org/our-board
  8. http://www.scbla.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/WBSII-1-2.pdf
  9. "Candidate Listing for the 11/8/2016 Statewide General Election". South Carolina Election Commission. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
  10. "2016 Statewide General Election official results". South Carolina State Election Commission. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  11. "2016 South Carolina Senatorial Election Turnout Data".
  12. Behre, Robert (August 14, 2017). "Community activist Thomas Dixon announces North Charleston mayoral bid two years before the election". The Post and Courier. Retrieved January 18, 2018.
  13. "2016 Statewide General Election official results". South Carolina State Election Commission. Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  14. "2016 South Carolina Senatorial Election Turnout Data".
  15. "Thomas Dixon's Biography". Project VoteSmart. Retrieved March 27, 2017.
Party political offices
Preceded by
Joyce Dickerson		 Democratic nominee for U.S. Senator from South Carolina
(Class 1)
2016		 Succeeded by
Most recent
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