Hoyt White, usually known as Mark White (born March 11, 1950, Union City, Tennessee

Union City, Tennessee

Union City is a city in Obion County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 10,876 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Obion County. The name comes from its location at the union of two railroads, one running roughly east-west and the other roughly north-south...

) is a Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 member of the Tennessee House of Representatives

Tennessee House of Representatives

The Tennessee House of Representatives is the lower house of the Tennessee General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional requirements:...

. He represents House District 83, which includes Germantown

Germantown, Tennessee

Germantown is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee. The population was 38,844 at the 2010 census.Germantown is a suburb of Memphis, bordering it to the east. Germantown's economy is dominated by the retail and commercial service sectors; there is no heavy industry in Germantown...

, Bartlett

Bartlett, Tennessee

Bartlett is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and part of the Memphis metropolitan area. The population was 54,613 at the 2010 census.-History:...

, Cordova

Cordova, Tennessee

Cordova is a community in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States. Cordova lies on Memphis' northeast side, north of Germantown, and northwest of Collierville....

 and portions of East Memphis/

White was formerly second vice-chairman of the Shelby County

Shelby County, Tennessee

Shelby County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the state's largest both in terms of population and geographic area, with a population of 927,644 at the 2010 census...

 Republican Party. He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in Tennessee's 9th congressional district

Tennessee's 9th congressional district

The 9th Congressional District of Tennessee is a Congressional district in southwestern Tennessee. The district is located entirely within Shelby County, and includes most of the city of Memphis...

 in the 2006 election. White's opponents in the general election were Democrat Steve Cohen

Steve Cohen

Stephen Ira Cohen is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2007. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Tennessee's 9th district includes almost three-fourths of Memphis. Cohen is Tennessee's first Jewish congressman....

 and independent Jake Ford. It was White's first bid for elected office.

Many pundits believed that White faced nearly impossible odds in November. The 9th is a heavily Democratic, majority-African-American district which has been in Democratic hands since 1975; the Republicans have not made a truly serious bid for the seat since 1978. In addition, the 9th's incumbent congressman, Harold Ford, Jr.

Harold Ford, Jr.

Harold Eugene Ford, Jr. is an American politician and was the last chairman of the now-defunct Democratic Leadership Council . He was a Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives from , centered in Memphis, from 1997 to 2007...

, was running for the Senate

United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

, and popular Governor Phil Bredesen

Phil Bredesen

Philip Norman "Phil" Bredesen Jr. was the 48th Governor of Tennessee, serving from 2003 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected Governor in 2002, and was re-elected in 2006. He previously served as the fourth mayor of Nashville and Davidson County from 1991 to...

 was running for a second term. For much of the campaign, it seemed the real race was between Cohen and Ford. However, the 9th is so heavily Democratic that White would have faced very long odds even in a two-man race against Cohen.

Despite being the highest-profile Republican to run in the 9th in almost 30 years, White was badly outspent, raising just over $227,000. In November, White placed third with 18 percent of the vote, well behind Cohen (60 percent) and Ford (22 percent).http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2006/pages/results/states/TN/H/09/index.html This was by far the worst showing for a Republican in the district since the 1950s.

He supports Rick Perry

Rick Perry

James Richard "Rick" Perry is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. A Republican, Perry was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full...

for Republican primary of the 2012 presidential election.

District 83

In July 2009, Tennessee State Senator Paul Stanley resigned his 31st District seat due to an extramarital affair with a 22-year-old intern. Brian Kelsey, the then-Representative from Tennessee's 83rd State House District, resigned his post in September 2009 to run for the seat. A special election was triggered, with the primary to occur on December 1, the same day as the election to fill the Senate seat. Mark White won the primary in a three-candidate field, and went on to face Democrat Guthrie Castle and Independent John Andreucetti in the General Election on January 12, 2010. The final results had White leading by a very comfortable margin in the extremely low turnout election. http://tnsos.org/elections/Results/TNHouse83General.phphttp://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=555049, White was elected to a full term in the seat later in 2010.