Thomas Exum Sr. (born June 16, 1952) is an American politician who is a Democratic member of the

Colorado Senate The Colorado Senate is the upper house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the US state of Colorado. It is composed of 35 members elected from single-member districts, with each district having a population of about 123, ...

. He represents

District 11 District 11 can refer to: *District 11 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam *District 11 (Zürich), Switzerland * District 11, an electoral district of Malta *Colorado Springs School District 11, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States *District 11 (Hu ...

, which includes all or parts of Colorado Springs, Cimarron Hills and Stratmoor in El Paso County. Previously, Exum served in the

Colorado House of Representatives The Colorado House of Representatives is the lower house of the Colorado General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Colorado. The House is composed of 65 members from an equal number of constituent districts, with each distr ...

, representing the 17th district from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2017 to 2013.

Early life and education

Thomas Exum Sr. was born in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the List of North Carolina county seats, seat of Wake County, North Carolina, Wake County in the United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most ...

, on June 16, 1952. He graduated from the

University of Southern Colorado Colorado State University Pueblo (CSU Pueblo) is a public university in Pueblo, Colorado. It is a member of the Colorado State University System (CSU System) and a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). History 1933 to 1959 The idea for startin ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in 1994. He worked as a firefighter for thirty-five years are worked as a battalion chief.

Colorado House of Representatives

Elections

Exum received the Democratic nomination to run for a seat in the

from the 17th district in the 2012 election. He defeated Republican nominee Mark H. Barker,

Libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

nominee Susan Quilleash, and

American Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

nominee Barry Forest Pace in the election. Republican nominee Catherine Roupe defeated Exum in the 2014 election. During the 2016 election he was endorsed by 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 defeated Roupe and Quilleash in the general election. He won reelection in the 2018 election against Roupe. He defeated Republican nominee Rob Blancken and Libertarian nominee Quilleash in the 2020 election. During the 2022 election Exum won the Democratic nomination for a seat in the

against Yolanda Avila. In the general election, Exum defeated Republican Sen. Dennis Hisey.

Tenure

During Exum's tenure in the state house he served as chair of the Government committee and served on the Education, and Transportation and Local committees.

Electoral history

References

External links

Official page
at the

Colorado General Assembly The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado. It is a bicameral legislature that was created by the 1876 state constitution. Its statutes are codified in the ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.). The ses ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Exum, Tony 21st-century American legislators Democratic Party Colorado state senators African-American state legislators in Colorado 21st-century American firefighters Living people Democratic Party members of the Colorado House of Representatives Politicians from Colorado Springs, Colorado 1952 births 21st-century African-American politicians 20th-century African-American people