Richard Cordray

Richard Adams Cordray (born May 3, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the COO of Federal Student Aid in the United States Department of Education.

He graduated from high school in 1977 as co-valedictorian of his class.

His first job in politics was as an intern for United States Senator John Glenn as a junior at Michigan State University's James Madison College.

Cordray earned Phi Beta Kappa honors and graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in legal and political theory in 1981.

As a Marshall Scholar, he earned a Master of Arts with first class honors in philosophy, politics and economics from Brasenose College, Oxford.

He was a member of the Oxford University Men's Basketball Team and earned a Varsity Blue in 1983.

At the University of Chicago Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor with honors in 1986, he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review.

In 1987 he became an undefeated five-time Jeopardy! champion.

After starting work as a law clerk at the U.S. Supreme Court, Cordray returned to his high school to deliver the commencement speech for the graduating class of 1988.

He began his career by clerking for Judge Robert Bork of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and for Justices Byron White and Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States.

After clerking for Kennedy in 1989, he was hired by the international law firm Jones Day to work in its Cleveland office.

From 1989 to at least 2000, Cordray taught various courses at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law and Georgetown University.

Cordray was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1990.

In 1990 Cordray ran for an Ohio State House of Representatives seat, in the 33rd district (southern and western Franklin County), against six-term incumbent Republican Don Gilmore.

Unopposed for the Democratic nomination, he defeated Gilmore by an 18,573–11,944 (61–39%) margin.

In 1991 the state Apportionment Board, controlled by a 3–2 Republican majority despite the party's 61–38 minority in the state House of Representatives, redrew state legislative districts following the results of the 1990 Census, in the hope of retaking control of the state House.

The new boundaries created nine districts each with two resident incumbent Democrats, pairing Cordray with the 22-year incumbent Mike Stinziano.

Unable to be elected in another district due to a one-year residency requirement, Cordray opted not to run for reelection.

After redistricting, Cordray decided to run for the United States House of Representatives in 1992 but was defeated.

The following year he was appointed by the Ohio Attorney General as the first Solicitor General of Ohio.

His experience as Solicitor led to his appearance before the United States Supreme Court to argue six cases.

Cordray ran for Ohio's 15th congressional district in the 1992 U.S. House of Representatives elections, and won the Democratic nomination over Bill Buckel by an 18,731–5,329 (78–22%) margin, following the withdrawal of another candidate, Dave Sommer.

Cordray's platform included federal spending cuts, term limits for Congress and a line-item veto for the president.

When Deborah Pryce, then a Franklin County municipal judge, announced that she would vote to support abortion rights, Linda S. Reidelbach entered the race as an independent.

Following Republican victories in Ohio statewide elections in 1994, Cordray left his appointed position and entered the private practice of law.

While in private practice he unsuccessfully ran for Ohio Attorney General in 1998 and the United States Senate in 2000.

He was elected Franklin County treasurer in 2002 and reelected in 2004 before being elected Ohio State Treasurer in 2006.

Cordray was elected Ohio Attorney General in November 2008 to fill the remainder of the term ending in January 2011.

In 2010, Cordray lost his bid for reelection to former U.S. Senator Mike DeWine.

He became Director of the CFPB via recess appointment in July 2011 and was confirmed by the Senate in 2013.

During his six years at the helm, the CFPB delivered major improvements in consumer financial products such as mortgages, credit cards, and student loans and returned $12 billion in relief to 29 million Americans.

He served as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) from 2012 to 2017.

Before that, Cordray variously served as Ohio's attorney general, solicitor general, and treasurer.

Cordray left the agency in late 2017 to run for governor of Ohio, an election he lost to DeWine.

In 2021, Cordray was named to head Federal Student Aid, where he has overseen student loan forgiveness for 3.6 million Americans.

Cordray was born in Columbus, Ohio, the middle child between brothers Frank Jr. and Jim, and was raised in Grove City, Ohio, where he attended public schools.

At Grove City High School, Cordray became a champion on the high school quiz show In The Know and worked for minimum wage at McDonald's.

He was the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio in 2018.

Cordray was raised near Columbus, Ohio and attended Michigan State University.

He was subsequently a Marshall Scholar at Brasenose College, Oxford and then attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review.