Jay Nixon Bio
Jeremiah Wilson “Jay” Nixon (born February 13, 1956) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 55th governor of Missouri from 2009 to 2017. A Democrat, he previously served four terms as Missouri Attorney General from 1993 to 2009 and represented Jefferson County in the Missouri State Senate from 1987 to 1993. As attorney general he created an Environmental Protection Division and won national recognition for his litigation work, and as governor he focused on budgets, job creation, and disaster response. After leaving office in 2017 he returned to private legal practice and has remained active in public policy and civic affairs.
Early Life and Background
Jay Nixon was born and raised in De Soto, Missouri. His mother, Betty Lea Nixon, worked as a teacher and served as president of the local school board, while his father, Jeremiah “Jerry” Nixon, served as the city’s mayor. His upbringing in a household tied to local education and civic leadership helped shape his early interest in public service. Family history also played a role in his political identity. One of his paternal great-grandfathers, Abraham Jonas, was an early Jewish settler in Illinois and a friend of former President Abraham Lincoln. Nixon himself is Methodist.
Nixon graduated with honors from the University of Missouri with a degree in political science. Before continuing his studies, he worked at various construction jobs to support himself. He then went on to earn his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Missouri School of Law, completing the formal education that prepared him for a career in law and politics.
Path to US Politics
After a period of private legal practice in his hometown, Jay Nixon entered politics in 1986 when he ran for the Missouri Senate in a Jefferson County district. He pulled off an upset win in the Democratic primary against two longtime Jefferson County lawmakers and then defeated his Republican opponent, Larry Callahan, with 64 percent of the vote in the general election. When the new legislature convened in January 1987, Nixon was the only freshman member of the Senate. He quickly introduced legislation allowing schools to purchase satellite dishes for better broadcasts and received an award as an outstanding legislator from the Judicial Conference of Missouri.
In April 1987, Nixon expressed interest in running for the United States Senate in the 1988 election and made his candidacy official in October of that year. He was endorsed by the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, although opponents criticized him for accepting support from a group they accused of using scare tactics. Nixon lost the general election to Republican incumbent John Danforth by a wide margin, as Danforth outspent him five-to-one through political action committees. He was reelected to the state Senate in November 1990, defeating Republican Richard Ford, and used his second term to champion legislation on issues like maternity leave, jobs, and the environment.
Jay Nixon Career
Early Career (1987–1992)
During his early years in the Missouri State Senate, Jay Nixon established a record of legislative activism and built a reputation as a rising Democrat. In 1989, he sponsored a bill that would have required businesses with at least 25 employees to provide maternity leave for pregnant workers, but the Senate voted the bill down 17 to 16. He reintroduced the legislation in 1990, and although the Senate approved it, Governor John Ashcroft vetoed the measure. These efforts helped him gain recognition beyond Jefferson County.
In September 1991, Nixon announced his candidacy for Missouri Attorney General. During the Democratic primary, fellow Democrat Mike Wolff accused Nixon of using political influence to get a consumer fraud complaint dropped, a charge Nixon denied. Nixon won the primary and then defeated Republican David Steelman in the general election, setting the stage for a long career in statewide office.
Missouri Attorney General (1993–2009)
Jay Nixon served as the 40th Attorney General of Missouri from 1993 to 2009, winning election in 1992 and reelection in 1996, 2000, and 2004, for a total of four terms, the longest tenure for an attorney general in Missouri history. Early in his tenure he created the Environmental Protection Division to enforce Missouri’s environmental laws, and attorneys in the division took legal action against polluters and worked to safeguard the state’s agricultural interests. The office’s successful litigation led to cleanups of polluted sites and millions of dollars in awards to the state.
His aggressive work in the Attorney General’s Office earned him national recognition. Barrister magazine named him one of the 20 outstanding young lawyers in the nation, and the Missouri Jaycees selected him as one of Ten Outstanding Young Missourians. During his tenure he also oversaw the state’s involvement in court settlements that ended mandatory urban busing in St. Louis and Kansas City public schools and argued the successful case of Nixon v. Shrink (2000) before the United States Supreme Court to reinstate Missouri’s campaign contribution limits. He additionally filed lawsuits against out-of-state telemarketers who violated Missouri’s no-call law, obtaining judgments and settlements on behalf of the state.
Governor of Missouri (2009–2017)
Jay Nixon was inaugurated as the 55th governor of Missouri on January 12, 2009, sworn in by Chief Justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, Laura Denvir Stith. Taking office amid the Great Recession, he focused on creating jobs, investing in education, and strengthening the state economy while keeping the budget in balance. He proposed holding public university funding steady in exchange for tuition restraint and later negotiated four tuition freezes for students at public higher education institutions. The Associated Press in 2010 called him the state’s budget “cutter-in-chief” for his repeated efforts to reduce spending and right-size government.
He drew bipartisan praise for his handling of the EF-5 tornado that struck Joplin on May 22, 2011, with the Associated Press calling him “a ubiquitous commander of disasters.” In 2011 he also created an Automotive Jobs Task Force and called a special legislative session that passed the Missouri Manufacturing Jobs Act, which helped secure a $1.1 billion Ford investment in the Kansas City Assembly Plant and a $380 million General Motors investment in its Wentzville facility. He won reelection in 2012 in a landslide over Republican Dave Spence, beginning his second term on January 14, 2013. His second term was dominated by the crisis following the August 9, 2014, police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson. He declared a state of emergency on November 17, 2014, and called in the National Guard to help restore peace, though his approval rating fell sharply during the period.
Post-Governorship and Continued Public Engagement (2017–Present)
Jay Nixon left office on January 9, 2017, with the inauguration of his successor, Eric Greitens, becoming the first Missouri governor to complete two full terms since John Ashcroft in 1993. After leaving the governorship, he joined the Dowd Bennett law firm in St. Louis and in mid-April 2019 served as a visiting Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. He also represented televangelist Jim Bakker in a lawsuit filed by the Missouri Attorney General regarding alleged false coronavirus cures.
In 2023, Nixon was recruited by the organization No Labels to help secure ballot access in all 50 states. He was seen as a potential candidate for the 2022 United States Senate race, with support from national party leaders, but ultimately declined to run. He continues to participate in civic and public-policy discussions from his home in University City, Missouri.
Notable Events and Milestones
Jay Nixon’s career includes a series of defining moments, from his 1986 upset victory in the Missouri Senate to his record four terms as Attorney General and his two landslide gubernatorial wins in 2008 and 2012. He is the most recent Democrat to serve as governor of Missouri and was the first governor in more than two decades to complete two full terms. His leadership during the Joplin tornado and the Ferguson crisis, along with his long record of environmental and consumer protection lawsuits, cemented his reputation as one of Missouri’s most consequential statewide officeholders.
Jay Nixon Career Wins
Jay Nixon compiled a long record of electoral victories over more than three decades in Missouri politics. He won his first state Senate seat in 1986, four statewide races for Attorney General in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004, and two gubernatorial elections in 2008 and 2012, for a total of seven major verified statewide and legislative wins. He also won reelection to the state Senate in 1990.
Statewide Election Highlights
Nixon’s first major win came in the 1986 Missouri Senate race, when he upset two established Jefferson County Democrats in the primary before defeating Republican Larry Callahan with 64 percent of the vote. He launched his Attorney General career with a 1992 victory over Republican David Steelman and went on to win three more terms, including a 2004 reelection that cemented his status as the longest-serving attorney general in state history. His 2008 gubernatorial win over Republican congressman Kenny Hulshof came by a 19-point margin, and he was handily reelected in 2012 over Republican Dave Spence.
Other Achievements
Beyond his electoral successes, Jay Nixon earned recognition as one of the 20 outstanding young lawyers in the nation by Barrister magazine and was named one of Ten Outstanding Young Missourians by the Missouri Jaycees. He was also recognized by the Conservation Federation of Missouri for his environmental work as a state senator. He was the first Missouri governor in more than two decades to complete two full terms in office.
Jay Nixon Family
Family Background and Public Service Lineage
Jay Nixon comes from a family with deep roots in Missouri civic life. His father, Jeremiah “Jerry” Nixon, served as mayor of De Soto, and his mother, Betty Lea Nixon, was a teacher and president of the local school board. His paternal ancestry includes Abraham Jonas, an early Jewish settler in Illinois and a friend of President Abraham Lincoln, as well as relatives connected to Democratic U.S. Senator Benjamin F. Jonas of Louisiana and U.S. Representative John Thompson Nixon of New Jersey. Another ancestor, John Inskeep, served as Mayor of Philadelphia in the early 1800s.
Personal Life
Jay Nixon is married to Georganne Wheeler Nixon, and the couple have two adult sons, Jeremiah and Will, both named after their father. After leaving the governorship in 2017, the family settled in University City, Missouri, where they have remained active in civic and community life. Nixon is a Methodist.