Michael Steele

Michael Stephen Steele (* October 19, 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland) is an American politician. He was from 2009 to 2011 Chairman of the Republican National Committee, the party organization of the Republicans. Steele was the first African American in this office.

Steele was born in 1958 at Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County and grew up in Washington, DC on. He received a scholarship to study at Johns Hopkins University and graduated in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in international relations from. Originally going for the priesthood, he spent three years in a seminar of the Augustinian Order in Pennsylvania. However, Steele decided on a legal career and studied at Georgetown University, at the Law Center he graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1991.

From 2003 to 2007 he was Deputy Governor of Maryland. Steele was the first Republican in that office. Steele is married and has two sons.

In January 2011, he took up for re-election and met on four opposing candidates. Here, Steele could unite on in the first round yet 44 of 168 votes, which he dated back to this time, only one vote behind the leader Reince Priebus. In the following rounds, the number of Steeles voters but fell from each; in the fourth round, he received only 28 votes. Then he pulled the first of the five candidates withdrew his candidacy; Reince Priebus was elected on the seventh ballot as his successor.