Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums (born November 24, 1935 in Oakland, California) serves as Oakland's forty-fifth (and third African-American) mayor. From 1971-1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Northern California's 9th Congressional District, which has a Cook PVI of D +37.
Dellums was born into a family of labor organizers, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps before serving on the B...
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Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums (born November 24, 1935 in Oakland, California) serves as Oakland's forty-fifth (and third African-American) mayor. From 1971-1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Northern California's 9th Congressional District, which has a Cook PVI of D +37.
Dellums was born into a family of labor organizers, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps before serving on the Berkeley, California, City Council. Dellums was the first African American elected to Congress from Northern California and the first openly Socialist Congressman since World War II. His politics earned him a place on President Nixon's enemies list.
During his career in Congress, he fought the failed MX Missile project and opposed expansion of the US$2.1 billion per plane B-2 Spirit stealth bomber program. When President Ronald Reagan vetoed Dellums' Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican...
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