Ellison, Keith, 1963-

<p>Keith Ellison earned a place in history as the first African American elected to Congress from Minnesota and the first Muslim to serve in the House or Senate. During his time on Capitol Hill, Ellison routinely had to combat Islamophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment, and emerged as a national spokesman for progressive causes. He used his seat on the Financial Services Committee to extend protections and greater opportunity to working-class and minority Americans in the aftermath of the Great Recession. In a speech on the House Floor Ellison explained that his progressive message “[is] about a lot of important things to help the quality of life for Americans, Americans of all colors, all cultures, and all faiths, Americans who serve in our Nation’s military, who serve us as public employees, Americans who are looking out for us every day to live a high quality of life, to send their kids to school and have a chance at education, to have a decent, respectable retirement, to have some health care, to be able to earn a decent living.”</p>

<p>Keith Ellison was born in Detroit, Michigan, on August 4, 1963, the middle of five boys; four, including Ellison, became lawyers and one became a doctor. His parents were Leonard, a psychiatrist, and Clida Martinez Ellison, who managed the family’s psychiatry practice and later earned a master’s degree in social work.</p>

<p>Ellison’s family had long been active in the civil rights movement. In the segregated South, his maternal grandfather, Frank Martinez, braved death threats and cross burnings by the Ku Klux Klan to organize voters as head of the NAACP in Natchitoches, Louisiana. That civil rights legacy inspired Ellison, who graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy in 1981. During Ellison’s years at Wayne State University in the mid-1980s, he converted from Catholicism to Islam. Years later he recalled, “It was Islam’s message of social justice and equality that affected me the most and satisfied my spiritual yearning and wondering about God, man, nature, and humanity.” Ellison became a leading campus advocate for divestment from the South African apartheid regime. He graduated from Wayne State in 1986 with a bachelor’s in economics and, four years later, earned a law degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis. He married Kim Dore, and they raised four children. The couple divorced in 2012.</p>

ELLISON, Keith, a Representative from Minnesota; born in Detroit, Wayne County, Mich., August 4, 1963; graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, Detroit, Mich., 1981; B.A., Wayne State University, Detroit, Mich., 1986; J.D., University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, Minn., 1990; lawyer, private practice; member of the Minnesota state house of representatives, 2003-2006; elected as a Democrat to the One Hundred Tenth and to the five succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2007-January 3, 2019); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Sixteenth Congress in 2018; attorney general of Minnesota, 2019-present.

<p>Keith Maurice Ellison (born August 4, 1963) is an American politician and lawyer serving as the 30th Attorney General of Minnesota. A member of the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Ellison was the U.S. Representative for Minnesota's 5th congressional district from 2007 to 2019. He also served as the titular Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2018. In Congress, Ellison was a vice-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a Chief Deputy Whip. He also sat on the House Committee on Financial Services. Ellison was the first Muslim to be elected to Congress and the first African American representative from Minnesota.</p>

<p>Ellison's profile was raised when he joined the race for chair of the Democratic National Committee in November 2016, gaining support from progressive groups and U.S. senators Bernie Sanders (of Vermont) and Chuck Schumer (of New York). His candidacy prompted renewed scrutiny of past statements and his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, which drew criticism from some moderate Democrats. Ellison was defeated by former Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, who subsequently appointed Ellison Deputy Chair, a decision approved by unanimous voice vote of DNC members.</p>

<p>On June 5, 2018, Ellison announced that he would not seek reelection to Congress, and seek the office of Minnesota Attorney General. Ellison won the Democratic primary and defeated Republican Doug Wardlow in the general election, becoming the first African American elected to statewide office in Minnesota, as well as the first Muslim in the U.S. to win statewide office.</p>