Jesse White (politician)

Jesse Clark White (born June 23, 1934) is a Democratic American politician. He served as the 37th and the longest serving Secretary of State of Illinois and the first African American to hold this position. He decided to retire in 2022 instead of running for a seventh term.
Early life.
White was born in Alton, Illinois on June 23, 1934. He attended Alabama State University.
As Secretary of State.
First elected to Secretary of State of Illinois in 1998, White was re-elected in 2002 by winning all 102 counties and garnering more than 2.3 million votes, the largest vote total by any candidate for Illinois statewide office in a quarter of a century. In 2006, White was re-elected to a third term, having received 63 percent of the vote statewide. White was elected to a fourth term in 2010, the leading vote-getter in the entire state.