Dwight Holton

Dwight Carter Holton (born December 18, 1965) is an American lawyer and politician from Oregon. Born in Roanoke, Virginia, he was approximately four years old when his father, Linwood Holton, was elected governor, becoming the first Republican in one-hundred years to hold that office. The elder Holton, who ran on a platform of racial reconciliation, famously sent his children to majority-Black public schools in Richmond, following court-ordered integration.

Dwight Holton
Portrait of Holton, c. 2010
United States Attorney for the
District of Oregon
In office
February 4, 2010 – October 7, 2011
PresidentBarack Obama
Preceded byKarin Immergut
Succeeded byAmanda Marshall
Personal details
Born
Dwight Carter Holton

(1965-12-18) December 18, 1965
Roanoke, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Mary Ellen Glynn
​
(m. 2000)​
Parent
ResidenceSoutheast Portland, Oregon
EducationBrown University (AB)
University of Virginia (JD)
OccupationLawyer
Signature

After earning a degree at Brown University and spending a number of years working on Democratic political campaigns, Holton entered the University of Virginia School of Law. Following his graduation, joined the United States Department of Justice as an Assistant United States Attorney. He spent over a decade prosecuting cases in Brooklyn and, later, Portland, Oregon, before being named interim United States Attorney for the District of Oregon in 2010. After a year-and-a-half in office, he left federal government service to seek the Democratic nomination for Oregon Attorney General in 2012. Despite being an early frontrunner in campaign fundraising, he lost his party's primary to Ellen Rosenblum.

Early life and family

Childhood and education

Holton was born on December 18, 1965 in Roanoke, Virginia, the fourth and youngest child of Virginia Harrison "Jinks" (née Rogers; 1925–2022) and Abner Linwood Holton Jr. (1923–2021), a prominent local attorney and Republican Party politician. He was named for former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had campaigned for his father during his unsuccessful gubernatorial run against Mills Godwin earlier in the year, and Episcopal bishop Robert Carter Jett, his great-grandfather.[1]

In 1969, Holton's father ran for Governor again, this time defeating William C. Battle, former United States Ambassador to Australia and son of former Governor John S. Battle. Shortly after he and his family moved to the state capital, Richmond, U.S. district court judge Robert R. Merhige Jr. decided the case Bradley v. Richmond School Board, ordering a limited busing program to integrate the city's public schools. Holton's parents made national headlines when they sent his older siblings: Tayloe, Anne, and Woody, to majority-Black schools near the Executive Mansion, in a show of public support for the move.[2] Holton started kindergarten at John B. Cary Elementary School the following year, to little fanfare.[3]

Holton moved with his family to northern Virginia in 1974, when his father accepted a job as Richard Nixon's Assistant Secretary of State for Congressional Relations. While in high school, he served as a congressional page.[4] He graduated from Langley High School in 1983, after which he entered Brown University.[5] He received a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Ideology in 1987.[6]

Marriage

On September 22, 2000, Holton married Mary Ellen Glynn, a spokesperson for Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and former White House deputy press secretary under Bill Clinton, at Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church in La Jolla, California.[7] The couple eventually settled in Southeast Portland, Oregon in 2002, after Governor-elect Ted Kulongoski appointed Glynn as his communications director.[8][9] They have two children, a son and a daughter.

Career

Democratic campaigns

Leaving Brown, Holton worked on Michael Dukakis's 1988 presidential campaign and Doug Wilder's successful 1989 gubernatorial campaign, after which he continued on as an aide to Wilder.[10]

References
  1. "Holtons Named Child Dwight After Ike". The Progress-Index. Associated Press. December 19, 1965. p. 24. Retrieved July 23, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Former Gov. A. Linwood Holton, a Republican whose actions helped break down racial barriers in the state, succumbs at 98". Richmond Free Press. November 4, 2021. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  3. "Governor's Son Enters Richmond Kindergarten". The Danville Register. Associated Press. August 31, 1971. Retrieved July 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Gamarekian, Barbara (May 31, 1982). "Capitol Pages: Witnesses to History". The New York Times. p. A8. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  5. 1982 Shire: Products of Our Time. Vol. 18. Hunter Publishing Company. 1983. p. 109.
  6. "Liber Brunensis 1987". Brown University. 1987. p. 228. Retrieved April 8, 2023.
  7. "Mary Ellen Glynn, Dwight Holton". The New York Times. September 24, 2000. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
  8. "Governor-Elect Names Director". Statesman Journal. January 9, 2003. p. 1C. Retrieved July 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. Har, Janie (April 20, 2012). "Has Dwight Holton 'never set foot' in an Oregon courtroom?". PolitiFact. Retrieved July 24, 2022.
  10. "Former governor's son named to head campaign". The News Leader. Associated Press. August 1, 1990. p. A5. Retrieved July 24, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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