Joseph Allen Tate (born December 13, 1980) is an American politician and former professional football player from

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. Tate has served as a Democratic member of the

Michigan House of Representatives The Michigan House of Representatives is the lower house of the Michigan Legislature. There are 110 members, each of whom is elected from constituencies having approximately 77,000 to 91,000 residents, based on population figures from the 2010 ...

from

District 2 District 2 may refer to: Places by country *II District, Turku, in Finland * District 2, Düsseldorf, Germany *District 2, Grand Bassa County, a district in Liberia *District 2, an electoral district of Malta *District 2, a police district of Mal ...

since 2019 and as Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives since 2023.

Early life

Tate was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, the youngest of four children. His father, Coleman Sr., was a Detroit firefighter who died when Tate was an infant. His mother, Debra, was a Detroit public school teacher. Tate spent his early years in the Jefferson Chalmers and Sherwood Forest communities of Detroit. His mother later moved the family to

Southfield, Michigan Southfield is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the city had a population of 76,618. As a northern suburb of Detroit, Southfield shares part of its ...

, where Tate attended Southfield-Lathrup High School, graduating in 1999.

Education and college football career

Tate attended

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

on a football scholarship. He earned four letters at Michigan State from 2000–03 and started 29 games his last three years at left guard. A two-time Academic All-

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...

selection in 2000 and 2001, he garnered second-team All-Big Ten honors from the media in 2003 as the Spartans went 8-4 in the regular season and played in the

Alamo Bowl The Alamo Bowl is an NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision college football bowl game played annually since 1993 in the Alamodome in San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. Since 2010 it matches the second choice team from the Pac-12 Conference and ...

against

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, which ended in a loss. He made his mark off the field as well during his time in East Lansing, as he also was presented MSU's Community Service and Leadership Award. After two seasons with the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the major ...

, Tate returned to Michigan State University to pursue a master's degree in kinesiology while serving as a strength and conditioning graduate assistant under coach Ken Mannie in 2007 and 2008. Tate attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

and School of Natural Resources obtaining his dual MBA/MS in 2017.

National Football League

Tate graduated from M.S.U. in 2003 with a degree in public policy and was then signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars as an offensive lineman. He later played for the

Atlanta Falcons The Atlanta Falcons are a professional American football team based in Atlanta. The Falcons compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. The Falcons joined th ...

and

St. Louis Rams The St. Louis Rams were a professional American football team of the National Football League (NFL). They played in St. Louis from 1995 to the 2015 season, before moving back to Los Angeles, where the team had played from 1946 to 1994. The arri ...

Marine Corps

In 2009, Tate joined the

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through comb ...

as an officer, serving two deployments in Afghanistan as platoon commander and company executive officer of his infantry unit during

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used synonymously by the U.S. government for both the War in Afghanistan (2001–2014) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response to the September 11 at ...

. After an honorable discharge, Tate returned to his native Michigan to pursue his MBA.

Political career

Detroit Economic Growth Corporation

Upon graduation in 2017, Tate became a program manager at Detroit Economic Growth Corporation.

Michigan politics

On November 6, 2018, Tate won the general election and became a member of

, serving District 2, a diverse community that covers part of Detroit’s Lower East Side,

Grosse Pointe Park Grosse Pointe Park is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 11,555 at the 2010 census. Bordering on Detroit with frontage on southern Lake St. Clair, it is the southernmost of the Grosse Pointe suburbs. Gros ...

, Grosse Pointe City, and Grosse Pointe Farms. He was elected to a second term in 2020. After the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

gained control of the

in the

2022 Michigan House of Representatives election An election will held on November 8, 2022, to elect all 110 members to Michigan's House of Representatives. The election will coincide with elections for other offices, including governor, and U.S. House of Representatives. Background This wi ...

s, Tate became the first

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

to be elected Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives.

References

External links

Joe Tate at housedems.com

Joe Tate at footballdb.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, Joe 1980 births 20th-century African-American people 21st-century African-American politicians 21st-century American politicians African-American state legislators in Michigan Atlanta Falcons players Democratic Party members of the Michigan House of Representatives Jacksonville Jaguars players Living people Ross School of Business alumni St. Louis Rams players