Bio

• Age: 55
• Education: University Texas, JD (1979); Austin College, BA (1976)
• From: Houston, TX
• Ethnicity: Black

Kirk was the first African American elected mayor of Dallas and served two terms leading the nation's ninth-largest city. He entered politics as a teenager volunteering for George McGovern's presidential campaign. He later worked as assistant city attorney and chief lobbyist for the city of Dallas. An aide to Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, Kirk followed Bentsen to the Treasury Department at the start of the Clinton administration and returned to Texas in 1994 as secretary of state. In 2002, Kirk ran for a U.S. Senate seat but lost to John Cornyn (R). He then went into private practice as a lawyer at the Houston-based law firm of Vinson Elkins.

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Last Job

• Vinson & Elkins, partner

Other Jobs

• Gardere & Wynne LLP, partner
• City of Dallas, mayor
• State of Texas, secretary of state
• City of Dallas, assistant city attorney, chief lobbyist

(AP Photo/Deborah Cannon, File)

Choices at a Glance

Campaign Fundraising

• Obama for America, $50,000 fundraiser

Financial Disclosure

View Ron Kirk's official financial disclosure statements, which describe the sources, types and amounts of income earned in a given year.

• 2009 (PDF)

Latest Headlines

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