Personality Spotlight: Ron Kirk

CHICAGO, Dec. 19 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama reached into the heart of Texas for his U.S. trade representative nominee, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk.

If Kirk is approved by the Senate, he would be the first African-American to hold this Cabinet-level post, Wikipedia said.

Born in Austin, Texas, Kirk entered the political arena as an 18-year-old volunteer for the 1972 presidential campaign of George McGovern.

Kirk attended Austin College and the University of Texas School of Law, where he earned his law degree in 1979. After practicing law until 1981, when he worked for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, including after Bentsen's appointment as Treasury secretary under former President Bill Clinton.

In 1994, Kirk worked for Texas Gov. Ann Richards as secretary of State.

The next year, Kirk ran for mayor of Dallas, capturing 62 percent of the vote to become the city's first African-American mayor. Among his accomplishments was the construction of the American Airline Center and the so-called Dallas Plan, a 25-year-plan that included the controversial Trinity River Project, a $246 million effort calling for building a network of parks and highways in the Trinity River flood plain.

In 1999, Kirk was re-elected as mayor of Dallas in a landslide with 74 percent of the vote. He resigned as mayor in 2001 to run for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by retiring Republican Phil Gramm. He lost to state Attorney General John Cornyn.

Kirk is a partner in the Vinson and Elkins law firm in Houston.