PERSON: Ken Blackwell

Executive Committee of the Council For National Policy

Vice President

John Kenneth Blackwell (born February 28, 1948) is an American politician, author, and conservative activist who served as the mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio (1979–1980), the Ohio State Treasurer (1994–1999), and Ohio Secretary of State (1999–2007). He was the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio in 2006, the first African-American major-party candidate for governor of Ohio. He is currently a Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment with The Family Research Council. He currently sits as Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the Council For National Policy and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Blackwell became involved in politics through the Charter Committee, Cincinnati’s third party. He was elected to and served on the Cincinnati city council.

In 1978, he was elected as Mayor of Cincinnati, serving into 1980. One of his first priorities was to establish a crowd control task force, to study better methods of crowd control and injury prevention. This was in response to the deaths of 11 concert fans at a concert by the British rock group The Who at Riverfront Coliseum on December 3, 1979.

Blackwell is a member of the Council For National Policy formed in 1981 and as of 2022 is Vice-President of the Executive Committee of the CNP.

When Blackwell began to consider statewide and national offices, he became a Republican. He was appointed to serve in the administration of President George H. W. Bush, as undersecretary in the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1989 to 1990. He returned to Cincinnati to run for the first district seat in the United States House of Representatives which was being vacated by Tom Luken. Blackwell lost to Luken’s son, Charlie Luken, by a narrow 51% to 49% margin. Following his close defeat, Blackwell was appointed by President Bush as US ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Blackwell served in that post from 1992 to 1993.

In 1994 Gov. George Voinovich appointed Blackwell as Ohio State Treasurer to complete the term of Mary Ellen Withrow. She had been appointed as U.S. treasurer by President Bill Clinton. Blackwell was elected treasurer in 1994 and was elected Ohio Secretary of State in 1998. That year, Blackwell considered a run for governor, but Ohio Republican Party chairman Robert T. Bennett persuaded Blackwell to run for secretary of state instead, leaving the governorship open to Bob Taft. Blackwell was national chairman of longtime friend Steve Forbes’ presidential campaign in 2000. Blackwell was re-elected secretary of state in 2002.

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