Kevin Santos-Carter

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Revision as of 10:30, 28 July 2009

Kevin Daniel Santos-Carter
Democratic Party
Senator
Began Present Office: 2013
State	New York
Class	III
Region and Superregion	New York, Northeast
Previous Offices	Congressman: NY-12
Born	November 28, 1979 Riverside, California
Spouse	engaged to Alex Jameson
Religion	Judaism
Residence	New York City, New York
Occupation	Political Organizer
Education	Stanford University (B.A.)

Kevin Daniel Santos-Carter (born June 28, 1979) is the senior Senator for the state and region of New York.

Childhood, College, and Coming Out

Kevin Santos-Carter was born on June 28, 1979 to David William Carter and Maria Santos Castillo at Riverside Medical Center in Riverside, California. The middle child of three children, Santos-Carter was an air force brat as his father was a pilot in the Air Force (and based in March AFB at the time). During his childhood Ryan lived in Riverside, CA; Colorado Springs, CO; Vallejo, CA; near Seville, ESP; and Phoenix, AZ before his father was finally based at Robins AFB in Warner Robins, GA. His father then retired and their family settled in Warner Robins.

At Warner Robins, Santos-Carter attended Houston County High School, excelling in the social sciences, humanities, and arts graduating with honors. He was also involved in the school's academic team, student council, theater, and tennis team. He realized he was gay when he was 14 (and promptly realized he was born on the 10th anniversary of Stonewall) and during his high school years he felt trapped by the conservatism of Central Georgia. He was therefore ecstatic when he got a scholarship to go to Stanford and back to the Bay Area, despite being able to get a HOPE Scholarship to attend the University of Georgia, his older brother's alma mater.

At Stanford he continued to excel in his studies and became involved in a number of campus organizations. In particular, he got involved in the school's LGBT CRC (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Resource Center) and at the end of his first year of school he came out to his family, which didn't quite go so well with his parents. However his brother and sister were accepting and Santos-Carter felt it was at least nice to have some supportive family members.

Early Political Activism

Unlike his older brother, Santos-Carter knew he more identified with the Democratic Party since he was an early teenager. It was therefore no surprise that during the 1998 and 2000 elections he worked and volunteered in various Democratic campaigns. During the summer after his 3rd year he also became an intern at Out and Equal. This would later reap many benefits as he was able to use his experience to connect to more LGBT organizations and eventually land an internship with GLAAD.

During the summer after college graduation he interned with GLAAD in their New York City office. As much as Santos-Carter loved the Bay Area and San Francisco, his summer in New York City sold him on living in the city. When he was offered a position as assistant to the Director of Media Field Strategy Santos-Carter gladly took it.

His first true foray into the realm of politics began during the 2004 election. Like many young people, Kevin supported Howard Dean. During the primary, Kevin left his job and went canvassing for Dean, especially in frigid New Hampshire. After the disappointing loss, Kevin decided to pursue a more politically oriented career. He eventually found a job as Development Director of New York's League of Conservation Voters.

During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, Santos-Carter decided to invest his time and energy full on to a political campaign, this time for his home state senator, Hillary Clinton. He became field coordinator for all of New York state and helped organize major phone bank operations during the New Hampshire, Super Tuesday, and Pennsylvania Primaries.

House of Representatives

After the 2008 elections Santos-Carter got a job as a senior staffer for Senator Clinton, mainly dealing with constituent affairs. In 2010 when Nydia Velazquez decided to retire, Santos-Carter decided to run for the seat. In a contested primary Santos-Carter finished ahead by 2 points, due to a clever campaign for Hispanic votes as well backing by many Clinton supporters. He won the general election comfortably.

As a Congressman, Santos-Carter focused on issues concerning the environment, worker's rights, and LGBT rights, becoming the primary sponsor of key bills such as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act [1]

Senate

In 2012 Santos-Carter ran for the Senate seat held by retiring Senator Willow Jaynes. As an active congressman, Santos-Carter enjoyed a modest early lead against his Republican opponent, then-Secretary of State Eric Stevenson. As the election went on, Santos-Carter widened the margin in the polls and defeated Stevenson by more than nine percentage points.

As a Senator, Santos-Carter continued on his themes of environtalism, worker's rights, women's rights, and GLBT rights. He served on both the Domestic Affairs and Judiciary committees, becoming the Vice-Chair of the Judiciary committee. Upon the resignation of Senator Olude Carter of California, he became the chairman of the Judiciary committee, pushing a wide range of legislation to expand and protect civil liberties

2016 Presidential Run

In late 2015, after the announced candidacies of fellow Democrats James Kwan, Rebekah Merrilin, and Jackson Rockefeller, Santos-Carter announced his bid to become the next President of the United States. Many in the party establishment did not think he had much of a chance to win, however early national polls showed that he was a serious contender in the primaries. Early in the primary, Santos-Carter picked up key endorsements from Senator Ross Kesler, among others.

As the campaign went on, Santos-Carter decided to focus and invest heavy resources in the New Hampshire Primary, instead of the customary routine to focus on the early Iowa Caucuses. He placed third in the Iowa Caucus, but emerged as a national frontrunner with strong poll numbers in many primary states due to grassroots organization efforts. He pulled a win in New Hampshire against a surging campaign by Merrilin and then decided to cement his leads in Super Tuesday primaries while ignoring the South Carolina primary. On the eve of Super Tuesday there was no clear frontrunner, but many states showed Santos-Carter ahead. He eventually pulled a string of victories on Super Tuesday giving him enough delegates to place a close second in the race, largely due to strong wins in California and Florida. However, he lost his homestate of New York due to a strong ground campaign and heavy negative advertising by Merrilin.

Electoral History

House of Representatives

New York Senate III

Political Succession