Deval Laurdine Patrick (born July 31, 1956) is an American politician who served as the 71st governor of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2015. He was the first African-American governor of Massachusetts and the first Democratic governor of the state since Michael Dukakis left office in 1991. Patrick served from 1994 to 1997 as the United States assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton. He was briefly a candidate for president of the United States in the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Patrick earned a scholarship to Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, in the eighth grade. He went on to attend Harvard College and Harvard Law School. After graduating, he practiced law with the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and later joined a Boston law firm, where he was later named a partner. In 1994, Bill Clinton appointed him as the United States assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the United States Department of Justice, where he worked on issues including racial profiling and police misconduct. He was first elected governor in 2006, succeeding Mitt Romney, who chose not to run for reelection, and was reelected in 2010.
During his governorship, Patrick oversaw the implementation of the state's 2006 health care reform program which had been enacted under Mitt Romney, increased funding to education and life sciences, won a federal Race to the Top education grant, passed an overhaul of governance of the state transportation function, signing a law to create the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, increased the state sales tax from 5% to 6.25%, raised the state's minimum wage from $8 per hour to $11 by 2017, and planned the introduction of casinos to the state. Under Patrick, Massachusetts joined the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Shortly after Patrick's second term began on January 6, 2011, he declared he would not seek re-election in 2014.
After his governorship, Patrick served as managing director at Bain Capital. He also served as the chairman of the board for Our Generation Speaks, a fellowship program and startup incubator whose mission is to bring together young Israeli and Palestinian leaders through entrepreneurship. He also holds a board of directors position at telehealth company American Well. Members of his own inner circle and Barack Obama's inner circle encouraged Patrick to run for president in 2020, but Patrick ruled out a 2020 presidential bid in December 2018. He entered the race on November 14, 2019, but ended his campaign only three months later following a poor showing in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.
Early life and education Patrick was born on July 31, 1956, in the South Side of Chicago, where his family resided in a two-bedroom apartment in the Robert Taylor Homes' housing projects. Patrick is the son of Emily Mae (née Wintersmith) and Pat Patrick, a jazz musician associated with Sun Ra. In 1959, Patrick's father abandoned their family in order to play music in New York City, and because he had fathered a daughter, La'Shon Anthony, by another woman. Patrick reportedly had a strained relationship with his father, who opposed his choice of high school, but they eventually reconciled. Patrick was raised by his mother, who traces her roots to American slaves in Kentucky.
While Patrick was in middle school, one of his teachers referred him to A Better Chance, a national non-profit organization for identifying, recruiting and developing leaders among academically gifted minority students, which enabled him to attend Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. Patrick graduated from Milton Academy in 1974 and went on to attend college, the first in his family. He graduated from Harvard College, where he was a member of the Fly Club, with a Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, in English and American literature, in 1978. At Harvard, Patrick won "Best Oralist" in the Ames Moot Court Competition, in 1981. Among the competition's judges was Judge Henry Friendly.
Patrick graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D., cum laude, in 1982. He proceeded to fail the State Bar of California exam twice, before passing on his third try. Patrick then served as a law clerk to Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit for one year. In 1983, he joined the staff of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF), where he worked on death penalty and voting rights cases.
While at LDF, he met Bill Clinton, the then Governor of Arkansas, when he sued Clinton in a voting case.Kirk Johnson. "The 2006 Elections: Governors; Democrats Oust G.O.P. In Governing Six States" , The New York Times, November 8, 2006. In 1986, he joined the Boston law firm of Hill & Barlow and was named partner in 1990, at the age of 34. While at Hill & Barlow, he managed high-profile engagements such as acting as Desiree Washington's attorney in her civil lawsuit against Mike Tyson.
Professional career Clinton administration In 1994, President Bill Clinton nominated Patrick as the United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, and he was subsequently confirmed by the United States Senate. Federal affirmative action policy was under judicial and political review, and Patrick defended Clinton's policy. Patrick also worked on issues including racial profiling, police misconduct, and the treatment of incarcerated criminals."Prison demands 'over the top' - N.Y. jail boss details 'aggressive' hounding by gov hopeful Boston Herald October 12, 2006.
Between 1995 and 1997, Patrick coordinated an investigation into a series of arsons of predominantly black churches across the South. The investigation brought together a number of state and federal agencies, and was the largest federal investigation in history until the time of 9/11."Church-Burning Case Guides Patrick's Boston Bomb Recovery" Bloomberg News, April 29, 2013 In the end, more than 100 arrests were made, but no evidence of national or regional conspiracy was found."In Church Fires, a Pattern but No Conspiracy" , Washington Post, June 19, 1996.
Law career In 1997, Patrick returned to Boston to join the firm of Day, Berry & Howard (later called Day Pitney LLP), and was appointed by the federal district court to serve as Chairman of Texaco's Equality and Fairness Task Force to oversee implementation of the terms of a race discrimination settlement. Working with employees at all levels, Patrick and his Task Force examined and reformed Texaco's complex corporate employment culture, and created a model for fostering an equitable workplace.
Some gay rights activists criticized him for his tenure on the United Airlines (UAL) board. During this time, the company originally fought an ordinance requiring that it offer domestic partnership benefits, but Patrick successfully encouraged UAL to offer such benefits to all employees, making it the first airline to do so."Gay Rights Advocates Question Patrick: Domestic Partnerships at Issue" The Boston Globe, August 18, 2006.
Business career In 1999, partly because of his work on the Equality and Fairness Task Force, Patrick was offered the job as General Counsel of Texaco, responsible for all of the company's legal affairs. While he continued his work transforming employment practices at the company, the majority of his time was devoted to exploring and working out a merger, ultimately announced in October 2000, with larger Chevron Corp."Patrick's path from courtroom to boardroom" The Boston Globe, August 13, 2006
In 2001, Patrick left Texaco to become the Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary at The Coca-Cola Company. Patrick pushed for a thorough review of allegations that some workers at bottlers of Coke products in Colombia had been abused or even killed by paramilitary groups as a result of union organizing activity. Patrick concluded the allegations to be unsubstantiated and untrue, but counseled that the company allow an independent inquiry to lay all questions to rest. After initially supporting Patrick's view, then-CEO Douglas Daft changed his mind, precipitating Patrick's decision to leave Coke.
From 2004 to 2006, he served on the board of directors of ACC Capital Holdings, the parent company of Ameriquest and Argent Mortgage. Ameriquest was the largest lender of so-called subprime mortgages and was under investigation by Attorneys General across the country. Patrick joined the board at the request of Ameriquest's founder, Roland Arnall, who asked for his help managing the investigations and changing the company's culture. During his tenure on the board, Ameriquest and Argent originated over $80 billion in subprime mortgages, but those conducting the investigation said that at the time Patrick left Ameriquest the company was on the road to change.
Following his career as governor, Patrick joined the private equity firm Bain Capital in 2015, where he served as a Managing Director.
In 2024, Patrick joined private equity firm The Vistria Group as a Senior Advisor, and was named a Senior Partner in November of that same year.
Higher education career Patrick is a Hauser Leader at Harvard's Center for Public Leadership. Previously, he served as the David R. Gergen Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he was co-director of the Center for Public Leadership from 2022 to 2024.
Governor of Massachusetts
Having been elected in 2006, Patrick took office as governor on January 4, 2007 and served two terms, leaving office on January 8, 2015, having not sought reelection to a third term.
Before taking office, Patrick assembled a transition team headed by lawyer Michael Angelini, bank executive Ronald Homer, and Weld administration economic affairs secretary Gloria Cordes Larson.Patrick picks team leaders The Boston Globe, November 11, 2006 In his first meetings with the legislative leadership, he proposed his first action would be to hire 1,000 new police officers and to expand full-day kindergarten statewide."Patrick will seek $120m for changes", Boston.com, November 12, 2006.
Breaking with the tradition of being inaugurated in the House Chamber of the Massachusetts State House, Patrick and Murray took their oaths of office, and Patrick delivered his inaugural address, outdoors on the West Portico of the State House facing Boston Common.
Doing this allowed a larger part of the public to witness the event, and was intended to signal a more open, transparent, and accessible government.review cool to inaugural speech plan The Boston Globe, December 14, 2006 In honor of his heritage, he took his oath of office on the Mendi Bible, which was given to then-Congressman John Quincy Adams by the freed American slaves from the ship La Amistad.Patrick to take oath on bible The Boston Globe, January 2, 2007.
A series of regional inaugural balls, seven in total, were held to bring the inauguration to the citizens of the Commonwealth. The celebrations took place in Cape Cod, Worcester, Dartmouth, Pittsfield, Springfield, and Boston.Gov. Elect Deval Patrick To Hold 7 Inaugural Balls , CBS4 Boston, December 6, 2006.
Elections 2006
In 2005, Patrick announced his candidacy for governor of Massachusetts. He was at first seen as a dark horse candidate, facing veteran politicians Thomas Reilly and Chris Gabrielli in the Democratic primary. Patrick secured the nomination in the September primary, winning 49% of the vote in the three-way race.State Primary Election Results 2006 Massachusetts Elections Division official results, Sec.state.ma.us In the general election, Patrick faced Republican lieutenant governor Kerry Healey and Independent Massachusetts Turnpike Commission member Christy Mihos.