Roy C. Strickland

Infobox Person


image_size = 200px
name = Roy Clifton Strickland
caption = Roy C. Strickland at his officedeletable image-caption
birth_date = birth date and age|1942|9|20|
birth_place = flagicon|USA Mississippi, Warren County, Mississippi, USA
death_date =
death_place =
occupation = Businessman; real estate agent
residence=flagicon|TexasThe Woodland, Texas, USA
party=Republican candidate for the United States House of Representatives, 8th District, Louisiana, 1972
religion=Episcopal and Roman Catholic
spouse=Divorced
children=Lindsay Dawn Strickland (born 1983)
footnotes=Strickland has sought office in two states, as a Republican in Louisiana in 1972, challenging Gillis William Long for the United States House of Representatives, and as an Independent in Montgomery County, Texas, for a county commission seat.

Roy Clifton Strickland (born September 20, 1942) is a businessman in The Woodlands, Texas, north of Houston, who was a pioneer in the development of the Republican Party in Louisiana. Strickland challenged the Democrat Gillis William Long for the United States House of Representatives in 1972. More than a decade later, he ran unsuccessfully for local office as a write-in candidate in Texas.

Early life and education

Strickland was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to Clyde C. and Erna (Voss) Strickland.

Strickland became a licensed real estate agent in 1967, while he was attending college at what became the University of New Orleans. Since the late 1960s, he has also been involved in real estate as an investor, developer, or contractor.

Political career

Running for the U.S. House, 1972

In 1972, when he was still twenty-nine, Strickland ran as a Republican for the open seat in Louisiana's 8th congressional district. Former Congressman Gillis Long was the Democratic nominee, and S. R. Abramson was the nominee for the "Radical Right" American Independent Party.

From the start, the demographics made the race impossible for either challenger. Governor Edwards and the Democratic state legislature had redrawn the Eighth District in 1971 to create territory friendly to Long, who had represented the district in the mid 1960s until unseated by his cousin, Speedy O. Long. Speedy Long did not seek a fifth term after the district was altered, and Edwards wanted to repay Gillis Long for his support of Edwards in the 1971 Democratic runoff primary.

Strickland did get support from a number of Republicans in the district, including Mayor Ed Karst of Alexandria, a recent convert to the party. Karst hosted Strickland in his home when the congressional candidate came to Alexandria to campaign. Strickland said that Republican state chairman James H. Boyce of Baton Rouge was "one of the initial sources of funding for my campaign, he was the financial heartbeat for many of the candidates, without him and his seed money, a lot of us would have never gotten off the ground."Fact|date=April 2007

Ultimately, the returns spoke clearly: Long won convincingly with 72,607 votes; Abramson, 17,844; and Strickland placed third with 15,517.

Texas political activities

Strickland continued his Republican political activities in Montgomery County, Texas. After the suicide of one of the four county commissioners in the middle 1980s, Strickland sought the Republican nomination from a committee organized to select a replacement. When the committee chose someone else, who was part of the GOP hierarchy, Strickland ran unsuccessfully as a write-in candidate in the general election. Strickland is still affiliated with the Republican Party.

Business entrepreneur

Strickland was transferred to the Houston area by his employer in 1977. He later co-founded a construction firm, and helped to run a Tennessee-based transportation company.

In 1990, Strickland formed what became CANUSAMEX, Inc., a firm twice named the "Fastest Growing In Houston."Fact|date=February 2008 In 2000, it was ranked by "Inc. Magazine" as the 133rd fastest growing company in the United States.Fact|date=February 2008 CANUSAMEX, Inc., was a victim of September 11, 2001, Strickland explained, because it could not comply with new government regulations which stemmed from the terrorist attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. The company ceased operations in the summer of 2002.Fact|date=March 2007

Strickland returned to his hometown of Vicksburg in August 2002 and worked with family members to negotiate the merger, acquisition, and consolidation of twelve Internet Service Providers which were sold to Xfone early in 2005. [ [http://www.msbusiness.com/article.cfm?View=2&ID=2667 Mississippi Business Journal ] ]

He returned to The Woodlands in the fall of 2004 and activated his Texas real estate license.

References

* http://www.roystrickland.com/
* http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_29/b3741618.htm
* http://www.roystrickland.com/ourteam.html