Richard Cordray

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Richard Cordray

Richard Adams Cordray (born May 3, 1959 in Grove City , Ohio ) is an American Democratic Party politician . The lawyer held various functions in the administration of the state of Ohio and was head of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from 2012 to 2017 . He was defeated in the election for governor of Ohio in 2018 .

Family, education and work

Richard Cordray is the son of Frank E. and Ruth E. Cordray (died 1980). His father was a program director in an institution for the mentally handicapped, his mother a social worker and teacher, and the founder of an initiative that provides foster parents for the mentally handicapped. He grew up as the middle of three sons in Grove City, was a chaplain of the Masonic organization DeMolay and attended high school there , where he was one of the best of the year (co-valedictorian).

He began his studies at Michigan State University , where he graduated summa cum laude in 1981 with a Bachelor of Arts in political theory. He was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa association and did an internship with Democratic Senator John Glenn in Washington, DC , which sparked his interest in politics. A fellow of the Marshall Scholarship he studied at Oxford University , where he played for the internationally successful basketball team and in 1983 was awarded in the subject Philosophy, Politics and Economics to Master of Arts . At the Law School of the University of Chicago he was editor-in-chief of the student law journal , where he received the Juris Doctor in 1986 . He then worked as a law clerk for Supreme Court Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy . In 1989 he started his own business as a lawyer and has since returned to this profession; his areas of expertise are audits and constitutional law. From 1989 to 2002, Cordray was a law professor at Ohio State University .

Cordray first appeared in public in 1987 as a candidate for the TV quiz show Jeopardy! and won the show five times unbeaten. Most recently, he appeared in a special edition of the show (Battle of the Decades) in 2014.

Since 1992 he has been married to Margaret "Peggy" Cordray, who teaches at the Law School of the private Capital University . They have a daughter and a son who were born twins in 1998.

Political career

Beginnings

Cordray in the 2008 election campaign for Barack Obama

Cordray began his political career when he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1990 . He beat long-time Republican mandate holder Don Gilmore by 22 percentage points and took up his mandate in the 33rd constituency in 1991. After redesigning the constituencies, he ran for the 1992 election in the 15th Congressional constituency - which included the western suburbs of Columbus - for the United States House of Representatives and was defeated by Republican Deborah Pryce with 38 to 44 percent (the independent Linda Reidelbach received 18 percent) . In 1993 he was appointed by the then Attorney General as the first Solicitor General (approximately: Chief Attorney) of the state and subsequently represented Ohio six times before the US Supreme Court . After the Republicans regained the office of Attorney General in the 1994 election, Cordray retired from the civil service and worked as a lawyer. He applied unsuccessfully as Attorney General Ohio in 1998 and for the United States Senate in 2000 and was an important contact person for Al Gore's presidential campaign for the state. He was elected Treasurer of Franklin County in 2002 and re-elected in 2004 before winning the 2006 State Treasurer election. He was elected Attorney General of the state in November 2008 in an extraordinary by- election, which combines the powers of attorney general with those of attorney general . In the 2010 election, he was defeated as incumbent Republican Mike DeWine and left in January 2011 from this office.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Cordray's nomination by Barack Obama on July 18, 2011, Elizabeth Warren left

US President Barack Obama suggested Cordray 2011 as the first conductor by Chapter X of the Dodd-Frank Act created Consumer Agency Consumer Financial Protection Bureau before. The recruitment proposal came from Elizabeth Warren , a law professor who specialized in consumer credit and whose ideas were based on the agency. Since the Senate initially refused to confirm it despite a majority in the vote by a filibuster , Obama used the instrument of Recess Appointments and provisionally appointed Cordray in early January 2012. The Senate confirmed Cordray after political and legal disputes in July 2013 with 66 to 34 votes for a five-year term. The Republicans had called for the agency, which is supposed to secure its independence, to have a five-person body at the top instead of a single head, and to submit its budget to the sovereignty of Congress because of the agency's far-reaching creative power. In August 2013, Cordray ratified all of his actions as head of authority, which was unsuccessfully challenged to the Supreme Court .

Cordray was under discussion as a possible running mate of the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election , and received support from the union. He remained in office during Donald Trump's presidency and was the last remaining of the officials appointed by Obama to regulate the financial sector after the financial crisis in 2007 . Republican and House Finance Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling called for Cordray to be fired in April 2017, and Cordray had been summoned to Congress 30 times while President Trump held back criticism. The possibility of a class action against credit institutions created by the authority was rejected by the Senate with 50 to 50 votes. Cordray announced his resignation on November 24, 2017. His leadership of the 1,600-strong agency was controversial because of the aggressive containment of banks, short-term lenders and debt collection agencies through regulations and fines, especially in the financial industry and among politically conservatives, while he built a good reputation among Democrats and consumer advocates. Under his direction, companies paid nearly $ 12 billion in fines to repay debts of 29 million consumers; 1.2 million complaints were processed. Elizabeth Warren said Cordray had held major banks - including Bank of America , Wells Fargo and Citibank - accountable, while critics said it made it harder for consumers to get credit and that the agency had exceeded its powers. While Cordray had tried to make his deputy Leandra English his interim successor, President Trump put Mick Mulvaney in his position.

Application for governor 2018

On December 5, 2017, Cordray announced that he was running for his party's primary election for governor of Ohio. His main rival was former Congressman Dennis Kucinich , who is even further left politically than Cordray. While Kucinich was supported by Our Revolution ( sanders-nah ) and attacked Cordray because of his moderate views on gun ownership , alongside the leadership of the federal party, Senator Elizabeth Warren stood up for Cordray. He won the primary election in May 2018 with 62 to 23 percent of the vote and met Republican Mike DeWine in the main election in November 2018. The election was considered to be open with initially slight advantages for the Republican - his party had provided the governor of Ohio for 28 years. Cordray emphasized his commitment to good governance during the election campaign , while the Republicans in the state legislature were marred by a corruption case. An advantage for Cordray was the simultaneous Senate election , in which the popular and left-wing Senator Sherrod Brown stood for re-election, while his Republican opponent, who had sought the proximity of Donald Trump in the primary , distance from the equally popular but extremely critical previous governor of Trump John Kasich stopped. Cordray's running mate is former Congresswoman Betty Sutton . DeWine prevailed with 50.7 to 46.4 percent of the vote.

Positions and Style

Cordray is considered politically left and progressive . In his first years in politics, Cordray campaigned in particular for legislation that encourages the mentally handicapped and people with learning difficulties and facilitates their care. He sits on the Advisory Board of Friends of the Homeless. In addition to basic political and judicial rights, Cordray also considers basic economic rights for individuals to be necessary in a free market economy in order to create fair conditions. In his candidacy for gubernatorial, Cordray highlighted common Democratic issues such as establishing universal pre-kindergarten childcare, toll-free community colleges, and promoting renewable energy to fight the opioid epidemic in the United States . While he advocates general background checks and the raising of the minimum age to 21 years for weapons purchases, he has spoken out against a general ban on the sale of semi-automatic weapons and rejected a change to the 2nd additional article .

Cordray, who is considered to be serious and "anti-charismatic" ( The Guardian ) and experienced in administration, wrote unusual tweets , for example when he poetically described the geographical outline of Ohio in early 2018 or extensively quoted the lyrics of Small Town by John Mellencamp . A spokesman said Cordray writes thoughtful, humorous and also a little nerdy .

Web links

Commons : Richard Cordray  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Full Biography for Richard Cordray. In: SmartVoter.org , February 6, 2000.
  2. ↑ a b RJ Wolcott: MSU grad getting buzz as possible Clinton VP. In: Lansing State Journal , USA Today , July 18, 2016.
  3. ↑ a b Richard Cordray. In: Notable Names Database .
  4. ↑ Kate Davidson: Cordray returns to 'Jeopardy!' In: Politico , January 31, 2014
  5. ↑ Richard Cordray at Jeopardy
  6. ↑ Richard Cordray in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  7. ↑ Cordray, Richard. In: Our Campaigns.
  8. ↑ Helene Cooper, Jennifer Steinhauer: Bucking Senate, Obama Appoints Consumer Chief. In: The New York Times , January 4, 2012.
  9. ↑ Danielle Douglas: Senate confirms Cordray to head Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In: The Washington Post , July 16, 2013.
  10. ↑ Chris Bruce: CFPB Faces Challenges in Courts, Congress in 2017. In: BNA.com , December 21, 2016
  11. ↑ Chris Bruce: US Urges Supreme Court Denial of Cordray Case. In: BNA.com , April 26, 2017
  12. ↑ Gordon v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In: Scotusblog , June 26, 2017.
  13. ↑ Renae Merle: Richard Cordray is stepping down as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In: The Washington Post , November 15, 2017
  14. ↑ Avie Schneider: Richard Cordray Stepping Down As Head Of US Consumer Protection Agency. In: National Public Radio , November 15, 2017
  15. ^ Stacy Cowley, Jessica Silver-Greenberg: Richard Cordray's Exit From Consumer Bureau Gives Trump an Opening. In: The New York Times , November 15, 2017.
  16. ^ A b Emily Stewart: Richard Cordray used to lead the government's top consumer watchdog. Now he's trying to become governor of Ohio. In: Vox.com , May 9, 2018.
  17. ↑ Matt Flegenheimer: Left vs. Left: Richard Cordray and Dennis Kucinich Battle for Governor of Ohio. In: The New York Times , April 29, 2018.
  18. ^ Dylan Scott: Richard Cordray beats Dennis Kucinich for Ohio Democratic governor nomination. In: Vox.com , May 8, 2018.
  19. ^ Ohio Governor - DeWine vs. Cordray. In: RealClearPolitics
  20. ↑ Latest Polls: Ohio Governor. In: FiveThirtyEight .
  21. ^ A b Ben Jacobs: Ohio: Democrat Richard Cordray puts Republican governorship in jeopardy. In: The Guardian , July 28, 2018.
  22. ^ Laura A. Bischoff: Ohio governor race: Who is Richard Cordray? In: Dayton Daily News , September 18, 2018.
  23. ^ Ohio Governor Election Results. In: The New York Times , November 7, 2018.
  24. ^ Nancy Niles: Richard Cordray: Leading Fight for Economic Rights. In: Michigan State University Alumni Association , Spring 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Cordray, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cordray, Richard Adams
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Democratic Party politician
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH Grove City , Ohio