Richard Adams Cordray (born May 3, 1959) is an American lawyer and politician who served from 2021 to 2024 as chief operating officer of Federal Student Aid in the U.S. Department of Education. A member of the Democratic Party, he served from 2012 to 2017 as the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and previously as Ohio attorney general, solicitor general, and state treasurer. Cordray was the Democratic nominee in the 2018 Ohio gubernatorial election.
Cordray was raised near Columbus, Ohio, and graduated from Michigan State University before studying at Brasenose College, Oxford, as a Marshall Scholar. He later earned a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review. Cordray was a five-time Jeopardy! champion in 1987.
Cordray was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1990. After redistricting, he unsuccessfully sought election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992. In 1993, he was appointed Ohio's first solicitor general, a position in which he argued six cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. After leaving office in 1995, he entered private practice and mounted unsuccessful campaigns for Ohio attorney general in 1998 and the U.S. Senate in 2000. He returned to elected office as Franklin County treasurer in 2002, won reelection in 2004, and was elected Ohio state treasurer in 2006.
In 2008, Cordray was elected Ohio attorney general in a special election to complete the remainder of an unexpired term. He lost his bid for a full term in 2010 to Republican Mike DeWine. President Barack Obama appointed him director of the CFPB in 2011 through a recess appointment, and the Senate confirmed him in 2013. Cordray resigned in 2017 to run for governor of Ohio but lost to DeWine in the 2018 election. As head of Federal Student Aid, he oversaw the administration of major student loan forgiveness initiatives that affected millions of borrowers. Cordray left the department after a chaotic rollout of changes to the FAFSA student aid application form.
Early life and education Cordray was born on May 3, 1959, 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 graduated from high school in 1977 as co-valedictorian of his class.
Cordray's first job in politics was as an intern for U.S. 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. Cordray was a member of the Oxford University Men's Basketball team and earned a Varsity Blue in 1983. He subsequently earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Chicago Law Review.
Early career 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 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, Cordray 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.
Ohio House of Representatives (1991–1992) 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, Cordray defeated Gilmore by an 18,573–11,944 (61–39%) margin.
1992 congressional election 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.
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 Reidelbach entered the race as an independent. Thus, the general election was a three-way affair, with Pryce taking a plurality of 110,390 votes (44.1%), Cordray 94,907 (37.9%) and Reidelbach 44,906 (17.9%).
Ohio solicitor general (1993–1995) While in private practice in 1993, Cordray co-wrote a legal brief for the Anti-Defamation League, in a campaign supported by Ohio's attorney general, for the reinstatement of Ohio's hate crime laws. This was considered by the U.S. Supreme Court, but not ruled on because of its similarity to a previous Wisconsin ruling.
In 1993, the government of Ohio created the office of state solicitor general to handle the state's appellate work. The state solicitor, appointed by the Ohio attorney general, is responsible for cases that are to be argued before the Ohio Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court. Until 1998, the Solicitor worked without any support staff. Cordray, who had earlier worked for a summer in the office of the United States solicitor general, was the first Solicitor to be appointed, in September 1993. He held the position until he resigned after Ohio Attorney General Lee Fisher was defeated by Betty Montgomery in 1994. Cordray's subsequent cases before the Supreme Court included Wilson v. Layne () and Hanlon v. Berger (). Though he lost his first case, Cordray won his second case, which garnered a substantial amount of media attention for its consideration of the constitutionality of media ride-alongs with police. Other cases included Household Credit Services v. Pfennig (), Brown v. Legal Foundation of Washington (), Demore v. Kim (), and Groh v. Ramirez ().
Cordray contested the Ku Klux Klan's right to erect a cross at the Ohio Statehouse after the state's Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board denied the Klan's request during the 1993 Christmas holiday. He argued that the symbolic meaning of the cross was different from the Christmas tree and menorah, which the state permits. The Klan prevailed in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on December 21, 1993, and erected a 10-foot (3 m) cross the next day. The same board denied the Klan a permit to rally on Martin Luther King Day (January 15, 1994) due to the group's failure to pay a $15,116 bill from its Oct 23 rally and its refusal to post a bond to cover expenses for the proposed rally. When the same 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the decision to deny the 1994 permit, the state chose not to appeal. The following year the Klan again applied to erect a cross for the Christmas holiday season, and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the prior ruling. The United States Supreme Court did not agree to hear arguments on the topic until a few weeks after Cordray resigned from his solicitor general position. After his resignation in 1994, Cordray represented the federal government in the U.S. Supreme Court several times: two of Cordray's appearances before were by appointment of the Democratic Bill Clinton Justice Department and two were by the Republican George W. Bush Justice Department.
Cordray was granted a ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court that lower courts could not grant a stay of execution for a death row inmate. At the same time, Fisher, Cordray's boss, sought a referendum to mandate that appeals in death penalty cases be made directly to the Supreme Court. In 1994, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Steffen v. Tate (39 F.3d 622 1994) limited death row inmates to a single federal appeal and said that federal courts cannot stay an execution if the case is still in a state court.
In early 1996, Cordray was elected to the Ohio Democratic Party Central Committee from the 15th district by a 5,472–1,718 margin over John J. Kulewicz. From 1995 to 2007, Cordray was a sole practitioner and Of Counsel to Kirkland & Ellis. Alt URL
In late 1996, Cordray, who was in private practice at the time, was a leading contender and finalist for a United States attorney position during the second term of the Clinton administration, along with Kent Markus and Sharon Zealey. Zealey was eventually selected.
1998 Ohio Attorney General election During the 1998 election for Ohio attorney general, Cordray ran unopposed in the Democratic primary but was defeated, 62%–38%, by one-term Republican incumbent Betty Montgomery.
2000 U.S. Senate election
Cordray entered the U.S. Senate elections in a race that began as a three-way contest for the Democratic nomination to oppose first-term Republican incumbent Mike DeWine. The three-way race was unusual since the three candidates (Cordray, Rev. Marvin McMickle, and Ted Celeste) were encouraged to campaign together in order to promote name recognition, conserve resources and lessen infighting. Ohio Democratic party leaders believed Cordray was better suited for an Ohio Supreme Court seat and urged him to drop out of the Senate race. Despite the Ohio Democrats not endorsing any candidate in the primary election, the entry of Dan Radakovich as a fourth competitor, and the anticipated entry of former Mayor of Cincinnati and television personality Jerry Springer, Cordray persisted in his campaign. Celeste, the younger brother of former Ohio governor Dick Celeste, won with 369,772 votes. He was trailed by McMickle (the only black Senate candidate in the country in 2000) with 204,811 votes, Cordray with 200,157, and Radakovich with 69,002.
Franklin county treasurer (2002–2007) Cordray was unopposed in the May 7, 2002, primary election for the Democratic nomination as Franklin County treasurer. He defeated Republican incumbent Wade Steen, who had been appointed in May 2001 to replace Bobbie M. Hall. The election was close, unofficially 131,199–128,677 (50.5%–49.5%), official margin of victory 3,232. Cordray was the first Democrat to hold the position since 1977, and because he was filling Hall's unexpired term, he assumed office on December 9, 2002, instead of after January 1.
The Franklin County Republican party made no endorsement in the 2004 election, but Republican Jim Timko challenged Cordray. Cordray defeated him and was elected to a four-year term by a 272,593–153,625 (64%–36%) margin.