Brad Carson
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| Brad Carson | |
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| In office 2001–2005 |
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| Preceded by | Tom Coburn |
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| Succeeded by | Dan Boren |
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| Born | March 11, 1967 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Julie Carson |
| Religion | Southern Baptist |
Bradley Rogers "Brad" Carson (born March 11, 1967 in Winslow, Arizona) is an American lawyer and politician from the state of Oklahoma. A member of the Democratic Party, he served in the United States House of Representatives from 2001 to 2005.
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[edit] Background
Carson was born in Winslow, Arizona. His father worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the family moved around reservations in Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina and Kansas.
Carson was a top student at Jenks High School and won a National Merit Scholarship to attend Baylor University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to become the first student at Baylor to be awarded a Rhodes Scholarship in 75 years. As a Rhodes Scholar, Carson went to the University of Oxford and earned a second B.A.(which became an M.A. a few years later) in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. He later attended the University of Oklahoma Law School, graduating at the top of his class in 1994.
After graduation, Carson took a job at a prestigious Oklahoma law firm, Crowe & Dunlevy. In 1996, his firm was awarded the Exceptional Contribution to Legal Services Award by Legal Services of Eastern Oklahoma.
[edit] Election to Congress
In 1997 Carson was selected as a White House Fellow, where he was assigned to The Pentagon as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.
An enrolled tribal member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, he was elected, as a Democrat, to the United States House of Representatives in 2000 from Oklahoma representing the 2nd Congressional District, located in the northeastern part of the state. He defeated Republican Andy Young with 55 percent of the vote.[1] The seat came open after three-term Republican Tom Coburn gave it up to honor a self-imposed term limit.
After redistricting changed the political composition of his district to be much more favorable to a Democratic candidate, Carson was reelected in 2002 with nearly 75 percent of the vote.[2]
During his tenure in Congress, Carson was generally seen as a moderate Democrat. He was a member of the conservative Democratic Blue Dog Coalition.
On October 10, 2002, Brad Carson was among the 81 House Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the invasion of Iraq.
[edit] 2004 U. S. Senate race
In 2004, Carson decided to seek the open U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican Don Nickles. Although he easily won the Democratic nomination, he faced a tough general election contest with Coburn, who had won the nomination by an unexpectedly large margin. Carson described himself as a conservative Democrat. However, he never made clear positions on the hot button issue of abortion. Carson had the unfortunate position of having to distance himself from the national Democratic party on most public policy matters. He portrayed himself as more moderate than his Republican opponent. Coburn, by contrast was one of the "true believers" in the 1995 Republican House freshman class and its Contract With America. This race was considered one of a handful of competitive races for the U.S. Senate in 2004.
By many accounts, the 2004 U.S. Senate campaign between Carson and Coburn was one of the most partisan races of that year. Coburn and Carson both presented themselves as supporting the traditional definition of marriage as "a union of one man and one woman" in the gay marriage debate. Although registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in Oklahoma by almost 2 to 1, most Oklahoma Democrats are quite conservative by national standards.
Coburn claimed that a vote for Carson was a vote for Democrats such as Tom Daschle, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Ted Kennedy. Carson was also hampered by George W. Bush's tremendous popularity in the state (the John Kerry campaign made virtually no effort in Oklahoma). In the November election, Coburn defeated Carson by a surprisingly large margin, 53 percent to 42 percent. While Carson trounced Coburn in the 2nd District, Coburn swamped Carson in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area and the closer-in Tulsa suburbs. Coburn won the state's two largest counties, Tulsa and Oklahoma, by a combined 86,000 votes — more than half of his overall margin of 166,000 votes.
Despite Carson's loss, election analyst Stuart Rothenberg called the Carson campaign one of the four best run campaigns in the nation in 2004.
[edit] Post-Congressional work
After the 2004 Senate race, Carson's term in the United States Congress expired on January 3, 2005 (Carson was succeeded by Democratic Representative Dan Boren of Seminole, Oklahoma). Carson indicated that he had no immediate plans to seek political office. In January, 2005, he accepted a semester-long teaching fellowship specializing in U.S. politics at Harvard University. He now works for the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in Catoosa, Oklahoma. He has also endorsed the campaign of Barack Obama. [3] He has contributed journalism to The Weekly Standard, The New Republic, Blueprint, and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas.
[edit] Electoral history
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Brad Carson | 107,273 | 55% | Andy Ewing | 81,672 | 42% | Neil Mavis | Libertarian | 6,467 | 3% | ||||
| 2002 | Brad Carson | 146,748 | 74% | Kent Pharaoh | 51,234 | 26% |
| Year | Democrat | Votes | Pct | Republican | Votes | Pct | 3rd Party | Party | Votes | Pct | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Brad Carson | 596,750 | 41% | Tom Coburn | 763,433 | 53% | Sheila Bilyeu | Independent | 86,663 | 6% |
[edit] References
- ^ General Election Results 11/7/00
- ^ General Election Results 11/05/02
- ^ Carson, Brad."Congressman Carson's Open Letter To Indian Country", The Native American Times, July 16, 2007.
- ^ a b Election Statistics. Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Retrieved on 2007-08-08.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Tom Coburn |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Oklahoma's 2nd congressional district 2001–2005 |
Succeeded by Dan Boren |
