 | A self-described Lincoln Republican. Michael S. Steele earned a place in history in 2003 when he became the first African-American elected to statewide office in Maryland. His experiences as a successful elected conservative African-American Republican and his engaging speaking style have launched Steele into national prominence. His first major exposure was during an appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention. |
Born in 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Steele was raised in Washington, DC. He was an adopted child and spent his childhood in the Petworth neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. a small racially integrated community. He and his half-sister were raised by her father, John Turner, and their mother, Maebell Turner, who was born into a southern sharecropping family in South Carolina. Steele’s half-sister Monica later married and divorced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson.
Steele attended Archbishop Carroll Roman Catholic High School in Washington, D.C. While at Carroll, he participated in the Glee Club, the National Honor Society and many of the school’s drama productions. During his senior year, he was elected the student council president.
| Steele won a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. In his first year, he was elected class president; he was also a member of the fencing team. he struggled academically while pursuing a major in biology and was nearly expelled from the university at the year's end. |
He them 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 Preparatory School in Malvern, Pennsylvania, but ultimately decided on a career in law and he left the Seminary prior to taking the vows. He earned his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center in 1991.
An expert on political strategy, fund-raising, PACs, and election reform, he is the current Chairman of GOPAC. He has served on the National Federal Election Reform Commission and the NAACP Blue Ribbon Commission on Election Reform.
Steele’s mother was a widowed laundress who, he stated, worked for minimum wage rather than accept public assistance. Steele grew up in a Democratic household. However, as a young man he switched to the Republican Party.
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, becoming the first African American ever to be elected chairman of any state Republican Party.
In 2002, then-Congressman Robert Ehrlich selected Steele as his running mate and nominee for Lieutenant Governor in the campaign against Democrat Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was then the Lieutenant Governor (under Governor Parris Glendening). Steele resigned his chairmanship of the Maryland Republican Party to campaign full-time. In endorsing Townsend, The Baltimore Sun praised her running mate, Charles R. Larson, for his experience and expertise, and added: "By contrast, Mr. Ehrlich's running mate, state GOP chairman Michael S. 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 Townsend campaign was tainted by problems with outgoing governor Glendening's personal life. The Ehrlich-Steele ticket won, 51% to 48%.
Steele’s most prominent efforts for the Ehrlich administration were reforming the state’s Minority Business Enterprise program and chairing Governor Ehrlich’s Commission on Quality Education in Maryland. While opposed to the death penalty, Steele endured criticism for not standing firmly against Ehrlich's support of the punishment, despite claims of racial inequities in its administration.
When Paul Sarbanes, Maryland’s longest serving United States Senator, announced in March 2005 that he would not be a candidate for re-election in 2006, top state and national Republican officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, began pressing Steele to become their party's nominee for the seat. Steele lost the general election to Cardin on November 7, 2006, getting 44% of the vote to Cardin's 55%.
On November 11, 2008, Jeff Burton launched a political draft website to encourage Steele to run for Republican National Committee Chairman. The website allowed visitors to sign a draft petition, and received over 6,000 signatures. On November 24, 2008 Steele launched a campaign website, and confirmed his intention to run on Hannity and Colmes. Six men ran for the 2009 RNC Chairmanship: Steele, Blackwell, Mike Duncan, Saul Anuzis, Katon Dawson and Chip Saltsman. Saltsman dropped out one day before the voting. After the sixth vote, he won the chairmanship of the RNC over Dawson by a vote of 91 to 77
He is currently a Partner in the international law firm of Dewey & LeBoeuf in Washington, DC. From 1991–1997, Steele was a corporate securities attorney at the international law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in Washington, DC, specializing in sophisticated financial transactions on behalf of Wall Street underwriters. He also was a corporate finance counsel for the Mills Corporation and founded his own company, The Steele Group, a business and legal consulting firm. His writings on law, business and politics have appeared in The Washington Times, Politico.com, Townhall.com, and The Journal of International Security Affairs, among others.
Named a 2005 Aspen Institute–Rodel Fellow in Public Leadership and awarded the 2005 Bethune-DuBois Institute Award for his ongoing work in the development of quality education in Maryland, Steele also has served on a variety of boards and commissions including Export–Import Bank Advisory Board, the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, and the Republican National Committee.
Lt. Governor Steele serves on the Administrative Board of the Maryland Catholic Conference and is a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Landover Hills, MD, where he attends mass regularly with his wife Andrea and their two sons Michael and Drew.
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