Daniel Manning Pope (born March 19, 1963) is an American businessman and politician. He served as the 35th Mayor of Lubbock, Texas, and has completed his third term as Mayor.

Early life

Pope was born in

Temple, Texas Temple is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. As of 2020, the city has a population of 82,073 according to the 2020 United States census, U.S. census. Temple lies in the region referred to as Central Texas and is a principal city in th ...

to Bert and Marcia Pope and graduated from Temple High School. He is an Eagle Scout in the

Boy Scouts of America Scouting America is the largest scouting organization and one of the largest List of youth organizations, youth organizations in the United States, with over 1 million youth, including nearly 200,000 female participants. Founded as the Boy Sco ...

. Pope attended

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

where he was a member of

Phi Delta Theta Phi Delta Theta (), commonly known as Phi Delt, is an international secret and social Fraternities and sororities in North America, fraternity founded in 1848, and currently headquartered, at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Phi Delta Theta, alo ...

fraternity. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Business Administration A Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is an undergraduate degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of four years and typically 120 credits of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of busine ...

degree in Finance from the

Rawls College of Business The Rawls College of Business (Jerry S. Rawls College of Business Administration, commonly referred to as Rawls Business) is the business school of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. Rawls Business offers curriculum for both undergraduate a ...

in 1985.

Political career

On November 12, 2015, Pope announced his candidacy for the 2016 City of Lubbock mayoral election. On May 7, 2016, Pope won the general election to replace outgoing mayor Glen Robertson, a current Republican candidate for Texas's 19th congressional district seat. Pope won 53 percent of the vote in the four-person non-partisan race. He avoided a runoff election with the second-place candidate, who finished with 32 percent of the ballots cast. On May 5, 2018, Pope won a second two-year term as mayor with 78 percent of the vote over two little-known challengers. In the campaign, Pope stressed public safety, including a new police facility, and planning for Lubbock's future growth. The 2020 Mayoral election, in which Pope is standing, was scheduled to take place on May 2, however was postponed to November 3 after a proclamation from Texas Governor

Greg Abbott Gregory Wayne Abbott ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist who has served since 2015 as the 48th governor of Texas. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served from 2002 to ...

to allow political subdivisions to delay voting. Lubbock native Stephen Sanders is challenging Pope. Sanders had run against Pope before as a write in candidate during the 2018 mayoral election. Pope and his wife, Denise, have two children, Manning and Anne Claire. Pope is a former member of the Lubbock Independent School District Board of Trustees, and

Advisory Council.

Controversies as Mayor

In September 2020 Pope issued a public apology for not recusing himself from a vote that helped direct taxpayer money toward a business investment made by his wife.

Electoral history

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pope, Dan 1963 births Living people Mayors of Lubbock, Texas School board members in Texas People from Temple, Texas Temple High School (Texas) alumni Rawls College of Business alumni Businesspeople from Texas 21st-century mayors of places in Texas Texas Republicans