Mark Lawrence Earley (born July 26, 1954) is an American attorney and former politician. A Republican, he was elected to the

Virginia State Senate The Senate of Virginia is the upper house of the Virginia General Assembly. The Senate is composed of 40 senators representing an equal number of single-member constituent districts. The Senate is presided over by the lieutenant governor of Virg ...

(1988–1998), and then elected

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

(1998 to 2001). In 2001, he resigned as Attorney General to focus his time on the 2001 campaign for

Governor of Virginia The governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia is the head of government of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The Governor (United States), governor is head of the Government_of_Virginia#Executive_branch, executive branch ...

. He ran to succeed

James Gilmore James Stuart Gilmore III (born October 6, 1949) is an American politician, diplomat and former attorney who served as the 68th governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002. A member of the Republican Party, Gilmore also chaired the Republican Nation ...

, but lost to Democrat

Mark Warner Mark Robert Warner (born December 15, 1954) is an American businessman and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Virginia, a seat he has held since 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, Warner served as the 69th gove ...

Biography

Earley was born in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

and graduated from the

College of William and Mary The College of William & Mary (abbreviated as W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia, United States. Founded in 1693 under a royal charter issued by King William III and Queen Mary II, it is the second-oldest instit ...

, receiving first an undergraduate degree in religion and later a J.D. degree. He is married to the former Cynthia Breithaupt and a father of six children. After admission to the Virginia bar, Earley had a private legal practice in Norfolk for fifteen years. Beginning in 1987, Earley represented the 14th Senatorial District in southeast Virginia for a decade. He was succeeded by

Randy Forbes James Randy Forbes (born February 17, 1952) is an American politician. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he was the United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative for , serving from 2001 to 2017. P ...

, who later won election to the U.S. House of Representatives from

Virginia's 4th congressional district Virginia's fourth congressional district is a List of United States congressional districts, United States congressional district in the state of Virginia, taking in most of the area between Richmond, Virginia, Richmond and the North Carolina ...

. He attributes his interest in politics to his two years as a missionary in

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

, the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. In 1997, Virginia voters elected Earley

. He polled 57.5% of the vote compared to Democratic Party candidate Bill Dolan of McLean who garnered 42% of the votes cast. As Attorney General, Earley worked with his predecessor, James S. Gilmore, who had won election as Governor of Virginia during the same election. He had a mixed record on consumer issues, and also had initiatives against abortion and for youth mentoring during his years in office. In the 2001 gubernatorial election to succeed Gilmore (limited to one term by the state constitution), Earley garnered 47% of the vote, compared to Democrat Mark Warner's 52% of the vote and libertarian W.B. Redpath who received less than 1% of the votes cast. Earley then returned to his general legal practice in Norfolk. From 2002 to 2011, Earley was president of Prison Fellowship, a prominent

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

organization founded by former Watergate figure

Charles Colson Charles Wendell Colson (October 16, 1931 – April 21, 2012), generally referred to as Chuck Colson, was an American attorney and political advisor who served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1970. Once known as ...

dedicated to ministry to prison inmates and their families. He garnered media attention in 2015 because of his changed attitudes towards criminal justice issues, now focusing on rehabilitation rather than incarceration, and coming out against the death penalty although he had defended executions as Attorney General.

References

External links

BreakPoint with Mark Earley Broadcasts
* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Earley, Mark 1954 births College of William & Mary alumni Living people Virginia attorneys general Virginia lawyers Virginia Republicans William & Mary Law School alumni American Christian missionaries Christian missionaries in the Philippines Candidates in the 2001 United States elections 20th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly