Michael Steele
:''This page is about the Maryland politician. For others of the same name, see Michael Steele (disambiguation).''
Michael S. Steele (born October 19, 1958) is the current Lieutenant Governor of Maryland, having been elected on the same ticket as Governor Robert L. Ehrlich in 2002. He is the first African American to serve in a Maryland state-wide office and the first Republican lieutenant governor in the state since 1970, when the position was created. Steele is currently the only African American lieutenant governor in the United States. On October 25, 2005, Steele announced his candidacy for the United States Senate. He will run for the seat of Paul Sarbanes, who is retiring.
Childhood, Education and Early Career
Steele was born on October 19, 1958, at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County. He spent his childhood in the Petworth neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C. Steele has described his small community as being a racially integrated oasis of stability in the 1960s, a very turbulent era in the nation’s capital. He was one of two children raised by mother Maebell Turner and stepfather John Turner. Steele’s sister Monica later married and divorced Mike Tyson, the infamous boxer.Steele attended and graduated Archbishop Carroll Roman Catholic High School in Northeast Washington, D.C. While at Carroll, Steele was in the Glee Club, the National Honor Society and many of the school’s drama productions. During his senior year, 1976-1977, he ran for student council president and won.Steele won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. At Hopkins, Steele was elected class president and was a member of the fencing team. Johns Hopkins awarded him a bachelor's degree in international relations in 1981.After college, Steele spent three years as a seminarian in the Order of St. Augustine in preparation for the priesthood. He entered the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University in Pennsylvania. As a seminarian, he taught freshman world history and senior economics for one year at Malvern Prep School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, but ultimately decided his calling was better suited to a career in civil service and he left the Seminary prior to taking the vows.Steele listens during Vice President Dick Cheney's address at the Second Annual African American Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, April 28, 2004.]]Steele then entered the Georgetown University Law Center and received his Juris Doctor degree in 1991. He landed a position as a Corporate-Securities associate attorney at the Washington, D.C. office of the prestigious international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieg, Steen & Hamilton. From 1991 to 1997, Steele specialized in financial investments for Wall Street underwriters, working at Cleary’s Tokyo, Japan office focusing on major product liability litigation and at its London office on corporate matters. Steele left the law firm when his political and civic activities led his career away from the partnership track. He then founded the Steele Group, a business and legal consulting firm. But at this point, his increasing political activities became a priority and his business was relatively unsuccessful.Steele is married to Andrea, and they have two sons, Michael and Drew.
Political Development
Steele grew up in a Democratic household, but was given the family's values that he said later led to his switch to the Republican party. Steele’s mother was a widowed laundress who he stated worked for minimum wage rather than accept public assistance. A print of President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jesus hung on the family's living room wall. Although Steele cast his first presidential vote for Democrat Jimmy Carter at the age of 18, he was soon drawn to the Republican Party, because, as he described it, “my mama raised me well. She provided me with a sense of an individual working hard and being responsible for his actions. As I grew older, I soon identified with the GOP.”After joining the Republican Party, Steele became chairman of the Prince George's County Republican Central Committee. In 1995, the Maryland Republican Party selected him as Maryland State Republican Man of the Year. He worked on several political campaigns, was an Alternate Delegate to the 1996 Republican National Convention in San Diego and a Delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia that ultimately chose the George W. Bush ticket.
In December 2000, Steele was elected chairman of the Maryland Republican Party http://www.mdgop.org, becoming the first African American ever to be elected chairman of any state Republican Party. As a result, Steele almost immediately became a target of some Democrats who saw Steele as an "Uncle Tom", as State Senator Thomas V. Miller Jr. put it in an interview in 2001 before later retracting his words and apologizing. In early 2002, after Maryland Governor Parris Glendening (D) tried to implement a partisan redistricting plan, Steele took the lead in successfully challenging the plan in court. The plan was ultimately overturned and redrawn by the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Lieutenant Governor of Maryland
Michael Steele at the Inaugural Children's Celebration - Jan. 11, 2003.In 2002, then-Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich selected Steele as his running mate and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in the campaign against Lieutenant Governor (under Governor Parris Glendening) Kathleen Kennedy Townsend. Steele then resigned his chairmanship of the Maryland Republican Party to campaign full-time. Ehrlich's selection of Steele for Lt. Governor proved a striking counterpoint to Townsend's pick. Townsend had considered and rejected several prominent African-American Democrats to pick as a running mate, but she picked Charles R. Larson a retired white naval admiral who recently switched parties and had no prior political experience. In endorsing Townsend and Larson, the Baltimore Sun characterized Ehrlich's selection of Steele as racially motivated and drew controversy by saying that Steele "brings little to the team but the color of his skin."In the September primary election, Ehrlich and Steele had no serious opposition. In the November 2002 general election, even though Maryland traditionally votes Democratic and had not elected a Republican Governor in almost 40 years, the Ehrlich-Steele ticket beat the Townsend-Larson ticket 51% to 48%.Steele watches a video and discusses Seaduck Research with Edward Lohnes (left) and Dr Matthew C Perry (right).Since his election, Steele’s most prominent efforts for the Ehrlich administration have been reforming the state’s Minority Business Enterprise program and chairing Governor Ehrlich’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. The Ehrlich-Steele relationship has been remarkably free of the discord that has historically enveloped previous Governors and Lt. Governors under Maryland’s gubernatorial system. Steele has recently criticized the decision to hold a fundraiser at an all-white Baltimore County country club, and spoke for the Ehrlich Administration on that issue. This could be a result of perceiving opponents on all sides – in a majority Democratic legislature as well as in the newspapers ''The Baltimore Sun'' and ''Washington Post''.
National Prominence
Recently, Steele has attained national prominence due to his stature as a successful elected conservative Republican African-American and his speaking ability. The Republican National Committee and President George W. Bush’s campaign gave him a prime time speaking slot at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City. Steele gave the Republican counterpoint to the Democrats' Barack Obama in a speech that received wide acclaim amongst pundits. In April 2005, President Bush chose Steele as one of three members of the United States delegation at the investiture of Pope Benedict XVI at the ceremonial mass in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City. Steele was joined by the President’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and Knights of Columbus Chief Executive Officer Carl A. Anderson.