Clayton for Senate.COM

Mark Clayton: Committed Christian and Proud Patriot

Mark Clayton is the first-born and only son of the late Jack Kirby (1939-2004) and Janith Lucille Clayton (1943-1992). Jan, a Christian school teacher, instilled a sense of moral duty into Mark. Jack Clayton enthusiastically taught Mark how to research and lobby while encouraging him to learn and tie together the four critical points: law, religion, history, and economics. He encouraged Mark to continuously develop his skills and to use an ever-strengthening knowledge of the four points to defend the liberty of individuals from wayward government policies.

From 1977 until his sudden death in 2004, Jack Clayton lobbied Congress for the American Association of Christian Schools and later both independently and for Public Advocate of the United States for a total of twenty-seven years. Mark's family is perhaps best remembered nationally for the time his father single-handedly lobbied through the Ashbrook-Dornan amendment in 1981. The amendment stopped the government from taxing Christian schools while also saving Christian schools from having to pay money they did not have for special scholarships. Without the Ashbrook-Dornan amendment, many Christian schools may not have survived.

Just before graduating high-school in 1995, Mark enlisted to become an aircraft electrician in one of the Army Reserve's last remaining aviation units.

While fulfilling his voluntary reserve enlistment, Mark transferred to Florida's Pensacola Christian College where he graduated with a BA in Prelaw in 2002. In addition to having lobbied Washington on anti-terrorism and in defense of families prior to this time, Mark returned to Washington D.C. for the summer of 2001 to help with the American's for Trade Defense project, founded by William J. Gill. Mark and Gill continued in this endeavor for the next two years.

Mark Clayton, second from left, with his Army Reserve pals at Fort Stewart, Georgia

Mark moved to Tennessee shortly after graduating college only to lose his friend Gill in September 2003 and his father only a few months later in February. After a time of reevaluation, Mark began to focus on his Christian belief, studying how recent textual discoveries help shed light on and further prove our Christian faith.

In addition to his senate campaign, Mark works in insurance and is also writing a book intended as a scripture study aide. Mark, now thirty-one, lives in an eighty-seven year-old farmhouse outside Nashville with his dog, Saint.

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