Royden Patrick Dyson (born November 15, 1948), is a former Democratic politician from

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. Dyson served in the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

from 1980 to 1991 and as a Maryland state senator from 1995 to 2015.

Background

Dyson was born in

Great Mills, Maryland Great Mills is an unincorporated community in St. Mary's County, Maryland, United States. Great Mills High School serves the lower end of the county, including the town (census CDP) of Lexington Park. The area is site of some of the oldest a ...

. Dyson attended private schools and graduated from Great Mills High School in 1966. He attended the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD i ...

, and the

University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UBalt, UB) is a public university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is part of the University System of Maryland. UBalt consists of four colleges in applied arts and sciences, Robert G. Merrick School of Bu ...

in 1968, 1969, and 1970. He also served as a legislative assistant in the United States House of Representatives from 1973 to 1974 for U.S. Representative William D. Ford of Michigan.

Political career

In 1975, Dyson was elected to the

Maryland House of Delegates The Maryland House of Delegates is the lower house of the Maryland General Assembly, legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. It consists of 141 delegates elected from 47 districts. The House of Delegates Chamber is in the Maryland State House ...

for district 29. The following year, Dyson ran for Congress in the Eastern Shore-based 1st District, losing to two-term Republican

Robert Bauman Robert E. Bauman (born April 4, 1937) is an American lawyer and politician. He is a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland's 1st congressional district (1973–1981). Bauman was a prominent conservative advocate in the H ...

. In 1978 he was a delegate in 1978 to the Democratic National Issues Conference. In 1980, Dyson narrowly defeated Bauman after Bauman suffered a sex scandal in the weeks prior to election day.

1988 election

In the 1988 election, Dyson was dogged by allegations of improper contributions from defense contractors. His Republican opponent was

Wayne Gilchrest Wayne Thomas Gilchrest (born April 15, 1946) is an American politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing . In 2008, Gilchrest was defeated in the Republican primary by State Senator And ...

, a high school teacher who had never run for office before. Dyson won by a smaller than projected margin of 1,431 votes. During his campaign, Dyson's chief of staff Tom Pappas died by suicide by jumping from a building while on a trip to New York with Dyson to meet with executives from

Unisys Unisys Corporation is a global technology solutions company founded in 1986 and headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. The company provides cloud, AI, digital workplace, logistics, and enterprise computing services. History Founding Unis ...

. Shortly before the trip, Pappas was the subject of a front-page ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' article, accusing Pappas of misconduct. Dyson refuted the article's claims as untrue. Others critiqued the front page piece piece for obfuscating facts and suggesting innuendo to titillate readers.

Later years

In 1990, Gilchrest defeated Dyson 57% to 43% despite again being badly outspent by Dyson, who received substantial PAC contributions in all of his later campaigns. In 1995, Dyson was elected to the

Maryland Senate The Maryland Senate, sometimes referred to as the Maryland State Senate, is the upper house of the General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Maryland. Composed of 47 senators elected from an equal number of constituent single ...

, representing District 29 ( St. Mary's County and southern

Calvert County Calvert County is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 92,783. Its county seat is Prince Frederick. The county's name is derived from the family name of the Barons of Baltimo ...

). He served in the Maryland Senate until January 14, 2015 after losing the 2014 Maryland Senate Election to Republican Steve Waugh.

Notes

References

External links

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Member activity
in Congress {{DEFAULTSORT:Dyson, Royden Patrick Democratic Party members of the Maryland House of Delegates Democratic Party Maryland state senators University of Maryland, College Park alumni University of Baltimore alumni People from St. Mary's County, Maryland Living people 1948 births Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Maryland 20th-century members of the Maryland General Assembly 21st-century members of the Maryland General Assembly 20th-century members of the United States House of Representatives