Dave Spence (born February 28, 1958) is an American

corporate executive Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit org ...

and politician. He was the Republican nominee for

governor of Missouri A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

in the 2012 election, losing the general election to incumbent

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) **Democratic Part ...

Jay Nixon Jeremiah Wilson "Jay" Nixon (born February 13, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the List of governors of Missouri, 55th governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic P ...

Early life and career

Spence was born in Overland in

St. Louis County, Missouri St. Louis County is located in eastern Missouri. It is bounded by the City of St. Louis and the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, and the Meramec River to the south. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1, ...

. He spent much of his childhood in the St. Louis area with his mother and two sisters. Following graduation from

Kirkwood High School Kirkwood High School is a public secondary school in Kirkwood, Missouri, United States. The school is part of the Kirkwood R-7 School District. History Kirkwood High School as an academic institution dates back to 1865, when the Kirkwood Sch ...

, Spence earned a degree in Home Economics from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

in Columbia. In 1985, the 26-year-old Spence purchased Alpha Packaging, a small plastics firm. Under his ownership it expanded from 15 to 800 employees. Spence has a family background in the

plastics industry The plastics industry manufactures polymer materials—commonly called plastics—and offers services in plastics important to a range of industries, including packaging, building and construction, electronics, aerospace, manufacturing and transpo ...

. His father had started a rubber and plastics business, for which Dave Spence worked as a teen. However, the business failed in the early 1980s. Spence has also served as chairman of Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging. Spence and wife, Suzie, married in 1990 and are the parents of four children.

Political career

In November 2011, Spence announced his intention to run for Governor of Missouri regardless of whether Missouri Lieutenant Governor

Peter Kinder Peter Dickson Kinder (born May 12, 1954) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 46th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri from 2005 to 2017. He was appointed as a co-chairman of the Delta Regional Authority in August 2017, serving in ...

decided to run. Kinder decided to run for reelection as lieutenant governor and endorsed Spence for governor. Spence, who has never held elected office before, has said: "Well one thing I would do is bring a fresh approach to everything. I am willing to jump in there and work my tail off, and I think it can be done. It’s a good point in my life and I feel the urgency to do something, and I can’t sleep at night knowing that I can make a difference and rally the troops and get the state turned around if I had the opportunity and said no." Spence's campaign website asserted that he held a degree in

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

, a statement also made on at least one campaign flier, which also incorrectly stated that he had gone to the university's business school. His degree is actually in

home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences (often shortened to FCS or FACS), is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and f ...

. After the inaccuracy was revealed and publicly criticized in January 2012, he corrected his website. Regarding the errors, Spence told the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

"I have said all along that I will not or do not lie ... A lot of this is overblown, as I was not aware of any place that said business school ... I will take responsibility for this. I did not catch the mistake on early campaign literature." Spence's campaign manager cited a staff oversight for the error. On August 7, 2012, Spence won the Republican nomination for Missouri governor. He received 333,578 votes (59.9 percent) to outpace nearest challenger Bill Randles' 90,651 (16.3 percent). Spence was defeated by incumbent Democrat

in the November 2012 general election. In his contest against Nixon, Spence had the support of

Phyllis Schlafly Phyllis Stewart Schlafly (; born Phyllis McAlpin Stewart; August 15, 1924 – September 5, 2016) was an American attorney, conservative activist, and anti-feminist, who was nationally prominent in conservatism. She held paleoconservative soc ...

Eagle Forum Eagle Forum is a conservative advocacy group in the United States founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972. Focused on social issues, it is socially conservative and describes itself as pro-family. Critics have described it as anti-feminist, an ...

political action committee In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spence, Dave 1958 births American chief executives Living people Missouri Republicans Politicians from St. Louis County, Missouri University of Missouri alumni Candidates in the 2012 United States elections