Mike Duncan

Duncan was born in Oneida, Tennessee. He is active in numerous professional and nonprofit organizations. He served as chairman of a state university and serves as chairman of the board of trustees at Alice Lloyd College, a private four-year liberal arts college in Pippa Passes, Kentucky. He has served as chairman for the Center for Rural Development in Somerset, Kentucky, a $30 million state-of-the-art regional center emphasizing telecommunications, training, and development. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President's Commission on White House Fellows in 2001. Duncan is a former trustee of the Christian Appalachian Project, the fifteenth largest private social services agency in America. Duncan is also a former chairman and director of the Kentucky Governor's Scholars Program. His student-mentoring program, which began in 1979, was featured on CBS News Sunday Morning and in the Los Angeles Times.

Professionally, Duncan was president of the Kentucky Bankers Association and a director of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank Cincinnati Branch. From 1989 to 1991, during a sabbatical, he worked in the Bush White House as Assistant Director of Public Liaison. President George W. Bush appointed him to the President's Commission on White House Fellows in 2001 and nominated him to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board, a position to which he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, in March 2006. His public service has been recognized with several distinctions including honorary degrees from Cumberland College (now the University of the Cumberlands), Morehead State University, and the College of the Ozarks.

Duncan has been equally active in his home state of Kentucky, where he helped in the successful campaign to win back Kentucky's state senate for the first time in 36 years. In 1998, he took a leave of absence from his business and chaired Jim Bunning's successful U.S. Senate race.

Mike Duncan defended the tobacco industry in an August 15, 1996 AP article: Kentucky GOP Delegates Irked by Tobacco Campaign Issue which said, "Mike Duncan of Inez, a member of the Republican National Committee, defended the tobacco industry. 'It touches as many as 500,000 people in our state. It's the cash crop for a lot of small farmers. It's what allows them to drive their trucks, borrow short term, get through to the next season, send their kids to college'".

Duncan is a long-time supporter and fundraiser for Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader.

He served as general counsel of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from July 10, 2002, until his election as chairman. He was elected treasurer of the RNC in January 2001. Duncan, in his fifth term as national committeeman from Kentucky, has served the party at every level from precinct captain, county chairman, state chairman, to national officer. He was a delegate to the 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Republican National Conventions and is one of the few persons ever to serve on the four standing convention committees. He was elected to serve as the 15th chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority in May 2009 and served until May 2010, when he was replaced by banker Dennis C. Bottorff.

Duncan and his wife, Joanne, are 1974 graduates of the University of Kentucky College of Law. Duncan received his undergraduate degree from Cumberland College (now the University of the Cumberlands). They reside in Inez in Martin County in eastern Kentucky. They have one child, Rob, an assistant United States attorney in Lexington, Kentucky, who is married to Valerie Ridder, originally from Springfield, Missouri. The Duncans are the principal owners of two community banks with five offices in eastern Kentucky.

Duncan ran for reelection in the 2009 RNC Chairmanship Election, but dropped out after the third round of balloting when elections were held on January 30, 2009, in Washington, D.C. Michael S. Steele was later that day elected chairman of the Republican National Committee.

On September 10, 2012, Duncan became the new president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).

RNC re-election bid

RNC chairman vote

Source: CQPolitics, and Poll Pundit

     Candidate won that Round of voting

     Candidate withdrew

     Candidate won RNC Chairmanship