Dwight Drake

Dwight Drake is an attorney and experienced public servant with a long record of fighting for job creation and improved public education.

Drake has been a tireless advocate on behalf of education and job creation in South Carolina. He headed up the successful, bipartisan effort to attract BMW to locate in South Carolina and later to expand their operations in the state, resulting in more than 15,000 new jobs for South Carolinians.

Drake also helped lead Choose Children First, a coalition of business leaders, lawmakers, and supporters of public education who came together to defeat Governor Mark Sanford's attempt to drain money away from public schools with a voucher program.

Most recently, Drake represented South Carolina students Casey Edwards and Justin Williams in their legal fight to force Governor Sanford to accept federal funds for economic recovery and to put that funding to work for South Carolina's public schools.

Drake's years in public service include serving as legal counsel to former Governor John West and as former Governor Dick Riley's top legislative aide, where he helped pass landmark legislation, including the Education Improvement Act, as well as efforts supporting early childhood development and state government reform.

Drake's first priority as Governor will be bringing jobs to the state, after years of neglect by Governor Sanford.

"We need to get South Carolina working again," said Drake. "The past eight years have been wasted, and South Carolina is now first in unemployment in the South. Mark Sanford made a lot of news when he disappeared this year, but he's been AWOL on jobs since the day he took office.

"I know from my experience working with two Governors who made education and jobs their priorities - John West and Dick Riley - and working to bring BMW to South Carolina, what it takes to create good-paying jobs in our state.""The first thing a Governor should do when he wakes up in the morning is think, 'What can I do today to bring good jobs to South Carolina?'" said Drake. "And the last thing he should do at night is ask himself, 'Did I do enough today on jobs?'

"My mother and father taught me always to tell the truth and do my best. Well, the truth is we're not doing our best in South Carolina. That's why I've decided to run for Governor."

Dwight Drake is a native of Spartanburg County, where his father worked in the mills and Drake joined him to help pay for his college education. He is a U.S. Army veteran who served in Vietnam, and he earned his law degree from the University of South Carolina. Drake lives in Columbia with his wife Beth, a federal prosecutor, and their two daughters, Marshall, 12, and Eliza, 9.