Clay Lewis Jenkins (born 1964) is an American lawyer and politician. In 2011, he began serving as county judge for

Dallas County, Texas Dallas County is the second-most populous county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 2,613,539, making it the ninth-most populous county in the country. Dallas County is included in the Dallas-Arlington-F ...

Early life and education

Jenkins was born in the

Oak Cliff Oak Cliff is a neighborhood of Dallas, Texas, that was formerly a separate town in Dallas County; Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in 1901. It has since retained a distinct neighborhood identity as one of Dallas' older established neighborhoods. Oak Cl ...

neighborhood of

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, Texas to JoAnn and Alvah Clayburn Lewis Jr. His mother was an active member of the

Texas Democratic Party The Texas Democratic Party is the affiliate of the Democratic Party in the U.S. state of Texas and one of the two major political parties in the state. The party's headquarters are in Austin, Texas. President Lyndon B. Johnson was a Texas Democ ...

and had served as a state delegate from 1978. After graduating from

Waxahachie High School Waxahachie High School is a public high school in the city of Waxahachie, Texas, United States and classified as a 6A school by the University Interscholastic League (UIL). It is a part of the Waxahachie Independent School District located in ce ...

, Jenkins enrolled at

Baylor University Baylor University is a private Baptist Christian research university in Waco, Texas. Baylor was chartered in 1845 by the last Congress of the Republic of Texas. Baylor is the oldest continuously operating university in Texas and one of the fir ...

. While at Baylor University, Jenkins was arrested twice, once for reckless driving, and a second time for trespassing into a women's dorm. After receiving his undergraduate degree, Jenkins attended

Baylor Law School Baylor Law School is the oldest law school in Texas. Baylor Law School is affiliated with Baylor University and located in Waco, Texas. The school has been accredited by the American Bar Association since 1931 and has been a member of the Associat ...

and graduated with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree.

Career

In March 2010, Jenkins defeated incumbent Jim Foster in the Democratic Party

primary election Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the ...

for Dallas County Judge. In the November general election of the same year, Jenkins defeated

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

candidate Wade Emmert to become the county judge. When Dallas County was hit by an outbreak of

West Nile virus West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member of the family ''Flaviviridae'', from the genus ''Flavivirus'', which also contains the Zika virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. The virus ...

in 2012, Jenkins declared a state of emergency for the county and led efforts to

spray Spray or spraying commonly refer to: * Spray (liquid drop) ** Aerosol spray ** Blood spray ** Hair spray ** Nasal spray ** Pepper spray ** PAVA spray ** Road spray or tire spray, road debris kicked up from a vehicle tire ** Sea spray, refers to ...

for mosquitoes. In 2014, amid a child migrant crisis, Jenkins offered to house as many as two thousand immigrant children who cross the

Mexico–United States border The Mexico–United States border ( es, frontera Estados Unidos–México) is an international border separating Mexico and the United States, extending from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Gulf of Mexico in the east. The border traver ...

in Dallas County. The offer served as a catalyst for a meeting between President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

and Texas Governor

Rick Perry James Richard Perry (born March 4, 1950) is an American politician who served as the 14th United States secretary of energy from 2017 to 2019 and as the 47th governor of Texas from 2000 to 2015. Perry also ran unsuccessfully for the Republica ...

concerning immigration and border security. Later that year, when Dallas County became the first county in the United States to have a confirmed Ebola virus case, Jenkins led the local response. During the Ebola crisis, Jenkins garnered publicity when he entered the home of

Thomas Eric Duncan Thomas Eric Duncan (December 30, 1972 – October 8, 2014) was a Liberian citizen who became the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States on September 30, 2014. Two health care workers became infected with Ebola virus, 26-year-old n ...

without

personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, elec ...

and personally helped Duncan's family move into temporary housing while their house was being decontaminated. Jenkins' widely publicized act was criticized by his political opponents, but won national praise from health officials for destigmatizing the

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

by showing that the disease cannot be transmitted between asymptomatic individuals.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jenkins, Clay 1964 births 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges 21st-century American lawyers Baylor Law School alumni County judges in Texas Lawyers from Dallas Living people People from Oak Cliff, Texas Texas Democrats Waxahachie High School alumni