Jason Richards
From Usgovsimulation
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| N/A | ||||
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| In Office: N/A | ||||
| Electoral District | N/A | |||
| Preceded by | N/A | |||
| Succeeded by | N/A | |||
| Born | March 23rd, 1978 Pontiac, Michigan | |||
| Political Party | Democratic | |||
| Spouse | None | |||
| Religion | Lutheran | |||
Jason Richards is an American Engineer, Businessman, Politician and Former Athlete. He was the Democratic Party Candidate for Shenandoah Valley Senate in 2010, but was defeated by David Summerville. He is most famous for his play as Defensive Back for the Virginia Tech Hokies from 1996 to 2000. He is the founder and sole current owner of Jason Richards Motorcycles, a Waynesville, North Carolina based small business. He is currently employed as an engineer for Kaine Industries.
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Early Life
Jason Richards was born July 4th, 1978 in Pontiac, Michigan. He was the youngest of five children, and grew up trying to follow in his brothers footsteps. His three brothers all played high school and college football, so Jason grew up on the gridiron, starring on various pop warner teams throughout his youth.
In High School, Richards was a slightly above average student. He was president of his school's mechanics club. His biggest success was on the football field. To this day, he is considered one of the fifteen best defensive backs in Michigan High School Football history. He was highly recruited coming out of high school, and decided to go to emerging football powerhouse Virginia Tech. He started as a Freshman, and was all NCAA his sophomore, junior and senior years, the final year winning the Jim Thorpe Award (awarded annually to the best defensive back in the nation). He graduated in 2000 in the middle of his class, with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.
Post College
From 2000 to 2004, Jason Richards worked as a mechanic at a Blacksburg, Virginia auto dealership. This job provided Jason with invaluable mechanical experience, taking the theory he had immersed himself in during college and adding a practical element to it.
In 2004, Jason moved to Waynesville, North Carolina and started Jason Richards Motorcycles, a small business that makes high performance customized motorcycles. In addition to being the founder and sole owner, Jason is also the head engineer. The company has experienced explosive growth due to its high quality products, although it is still relatively small due to lack of capital and credit in the present economic crisis.
In 2006, Jason Richards worked as an unpaid volunteer for Heath Shuler's House campaign, running get out the vote operations in parts of Waynesville.
2010 Shenandoah Valley Senate Race
In 2010, Jason Richards ran for Senate from the Shenandoah Valley. His opponent was the Republican David Summerville. The campaign was hard fought, and many pundits have stated that the quality of campaigning was relatively even on both sides (with perhaps a marginal edge for Summerville). Richards's campaign suffered from a minor organizational problem, along with Summerville's superior strategy, resulted in a roughly 2% win for Summerville.
Life After Politics
Jason Richards currently is an semi-independent contracting engineer for Kaine Industries. He splits time between houses in Utah and North Carolina, and does not appear to be re-entering elected politics any time soon. He has served on and off as a special adviser to his adoptive niece, California Representative Amanda Renzetti.
