John H. Cox

John Herman Cox (né Kaplan; born July 15, 1955) is an American businessman, housing developer, political activist, and perennial candidate. A Republican, he was the party's nominee for Governor of California in 2018, as well as one of the party's replacement candidates in the state's 2021 recall election.

Cox began his political career as a Democrat, as he ran to be a delegate to that party's 1976 National Convention. He later became a Republican in Illinois, running for a congressional seat in 2000, United States Senate in 2002, Cook County Recorder of Deeds in 2004, and President of the United States in 2008.

After moving to California, he proposed the California is not for Sale initiative to combat corruption. Cox became the Republican nominee in the 2018 California gubernatorial election, after placing second in the state's June 5 nonpartisan blanket primary. On November 6, 2018, he lost to Democrat Gavin Newsom in the state's biggest gubernatorial landslide since 1950. Cox was a candidate in the unsuccessful 2021 California gubernatorial recall election, placing 5th with a total of 4.4% of the vote.

Born John Kaplan in Chicago on July 15, 1955, Cox is the son of Priscilla (Pick) and Albert Kaplan. He has an older half brother, Michael, from his mother's first marriage. Following her divorce from his biological father, his mother married Thomas Cox, a post office supervisor, who adopted him and moved the family to the Chicago suburb of Alsip, Illinois. Cox graduated from Harold L. Richards High School in Oak Lawn, Illinois. He put himself through college by teaching tennis and earned his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he majored in accounting and political science. He received his J.D. degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Chicago-Kent College of Law at night while working days at Coopers & Lybrand as an accountant. He and his first wife, Nancy, divorced. He married his second wife, Sarah. Cox was raised by a Jewish mother. He now practices Catholicism with his family.

In 1981, he founded a law firm specializing in corporate law and tax planning, John H. Cox and Associates. In 1985, he founded Cox Financial Group Ltd., which specializes in investment counseling, income tax planning, retirement planning, and asset protection. Although Cox takes credit for the financial turnaround of the Japp family Chicago potato-chip firm, its owners sued Cox in 1998, alleging financial misconduct, a case that was settled on August 24, 1999 when Cox purchased from the plaintiffs real estate interests he considered worth $3 million for $1.7 million—from his viewpoint, a favorable settlement).

Originally a Democrat, Cox ran unsuccessfully to be elected as a delegate to the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Cox became a Republican later on, serving in 1987 on the steering committee of Jack Kemp's campaign for the 1988 Republican presidential primaries.

In 2000, Cox ran for Congress in Illinois's 10th congressional district to replace retiring Congressman John Edward Porter, finishing fifth in the Republican primary race, with 6,339 votes, 10.09%, to former Porter aide Mark Kirk, despite spending half a million dollars on his campaign. In 2002, Cox ran for U.S. Senate in Illinois on a conservative platform, aligning himself with Reagan Republicans. He lost the Republican primary with 23%, placing third behind Jim Durkin and Jim Oberweis.

Cox hosted The Progressive Conservative, a twice-weekly bought-time radio talk show on low-wattage WJJG 1530 AM in Chicago. Featuring guests like Michael Moriarty, its themes included criticism of trial lawyers and creation of a website in March 2003 that nominated public figures (such as Janeane Garofalo, Martin Sheen, and Jacques Chirac) as "Friends of Saddam". In 2004, Cox was appointed president of the Cook County Republican Party. At the 2006 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Cox debated the issue of capital punishment, siding as an opponent of the death penalty.

In 2004, Cox garnered 29.26% of the vote running against incumbent Democrat Eugene Moore in the election for Cook County Recorder of Deeds. During his campaign, Cox declared that he had decided to run for the office in order to eliminate the position. He argued that the office was an unnecessary duplication of services that had become a "model of waste and corruption". While his stance that the office was unnecessary was not enough to garner him election in 2004, Cook County voters later agreed with this position and, in 2016, voted to eliminate the office and merge its functions with the office of the Cook County Clerk.

On March 9, 2006, Cox announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president of the United States in 2008, becoming the first Republican to formally enter the 2008 presidential race. He dropped out of the race later in the year, but did appear on several primary ballots. Cox became a part-time resident of California in 2007, and in 2011 he became a full-time resident of Rancho Santa Fe.

Cox began his political career as a moderate Democrat, but has become known for his positions as a conservative Republican. Cox holds a consistent life ethic, being strongly opposed to both abortion and the death penalty. He has taken other socially conservative positions, including opposing gay rights and the separation between church and state, while supporting the construction of a border wall. On economic issues, he opposes the gas tax and California's high speed rail proposal.

Although his perspective has evolved, citing the fact that he is a Catholic, Cox has said that he is pro-life.

During the Values Voter presidential debate in 2006, Cox said that he would nominate only judges who are committed to reversing prior court decision where allegedly activist judges "strayed from the judicial role and legislated from the bench."

In January 2018, Cox stated he was opposed to the construction of a border wall. Rival GOP gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen has commented that Cox has "flip-flopped" on his position. Cox has since stated that he supports a southern border wall.

Cox personally opposes the death penalty on grounds of his Catholic faith and the financial burden associated with the procedure. During his 2018 gubernatorial campaign, a spokesman said that if elected, Cox would have enforced the state's laws permitting capital punishment.