David James "Mac" McAllister (born 12 January 1971) is a German politician of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU). On 1 July 2010 he was elected Minister-President of the state of Lower Saxony, succeeding Christian Wulff, who resigned following his election as President of Germany. Until 2013, McAllister headed a coalition government with the liberal FDP, the Cabinet McAllister. In 2013, he was succeeded by Social Democrat Stephan Weil. Since 2014 he has been a Member of the European Parliament.
A lawyer by profession, he has been the chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the Landtag of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010 and was elected chairman of the state party from 2008 until 2016. From 2010 until 2013, he was also a member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen.
McAllister is of German and Scottish descent, and he leads a state that has historic ties to Britain, as the old Kingdom of Hanover makes up parts of the state and the state capital is Hanover City.
McAllister was born in West Berlin on 12 January 1971 to a Scottish father and a German mother. His father, James Buchanan McAllister, was a British civil servant, originally from Glasgow (where the family still has relatives). He had been stationed in West Berlin since 1969, attached to the Royal Corps of Signals. His mother, Mechthild McAllister, is a music teacher. David McAllister was raised bilingual (speaking English and German) and attended a British primary school in Berlin.
After his parents moved to the small town of Bad Bederkesa in Lower Saxony in 1982, he went to the Lower Saxon "Internatsgymnasium" (boarding school) in Bederkesa, where he took his Abitur in 1989. From 1989 till 1991, McAllister served as a soldier in the Bundeswehr, in Panzerbataillon 74 in Cuxhaven. From 1991–96 he studied law with a scholarship of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at the University of Hanover. In 1994, McAllister became local chairman of the Junge Union, the CDU youth organisation, in the Cuxhaven district.
David McAllister is both a German and a British citizen, but says that he is "more or less completely German. I've lived in Germany all my life. I did all my school in Germany and my military service in Germany." His upbringing in West Berlin, however, he describes as "very British" with "British network, British schools". Holding dual citizenship, he could have relinquished his German citizenship to avoid compulsory military service in Germany (the UK does not have compulsory military service), but opted to serve instead.
McAllister has said that ""my upbringing in West Berlin may have had an impact on my resentment towards communists. I became a member of the CDU when I was 17 – it was a birthday present. My parents said, 'What do you want for your birthday?’ I said I wanted to become a member of the CDU"", explaining that his father was a Conservative, although none of his parents were involved in party politics.
From 1996 till 2010, McAllister was a member of the Cuxhaven district council (Kreistag). He served as mayor of his hometown of Bad Bederkesa from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2003, he also was secretary general of the CDU in Lower Saxony. Since 2003, McAllister has been the leader of the CDU parliamentary party group in the Parliament of Lower Saxony, of which he has been a member since 1998. McAllister succeeded Christian Wulff as party chairman of the CDU in Lower Saxony in June 2008, winning the election by a record margin. In 2016, he was succeeded by Bernd Althusmann. In the United Kingdom, McAllister is a supporter of the Conservative Party.
In 2005, Chancellor Angela Merkel offered him the position of Secretary General of the CDU, but McAllister declined, arguing he did not want to rise too far too fast.
On 4 June 2010, he was chosen by his party to follow Christian Wulff as Minister-President of Lower Saxony, if the latter was to be elected President of Germany on 30 June. After the election of Wulff as President, David McAllister was elected the new Minister-President of Lower Saxony the following day. In 2013, he lost the re-election to Stephan Weil, of the Social Democrats. He was subsequently also appointed to the supervisory board of Volkswagen, the largest company of Lower Saxony and of which the state of Lower Saxony is a major stockholder.
He is married to Dunja McAllister, who is also a lawyer. They have two daughters, Jamie Elizabeth and Mia Louise. He lives in Bad Bederkesa in the district of Cuxhaven.
Proud of his Scottish heritage, McAllister proposed to his wife at Loch Ness, and married in August 2003, wearing a kilt. He later explained it was a family tradition.
Dixie County, Florida
Dixie County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, 13,827 people lived there. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 14,647. Its county seat is Cross City, Florida.
Dixie County was created in 1921 from the southern portion of Lafayette County. "Dixie" is a common nickname for the Southern United States.
According to the 2000 census, the county has a total area of , of which (or 81.51%) is land and (or 18.49%) is water.
As of the census of 2008, there were 14,957 people living in Dixie County. In 2000 there were an estimated 5,205 households, and 3,659 families living in the county. The population density was 20 people per square mile (8/km²). There were 7,362 housing units at an average density of 10 per square mile (4/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 88.80% White, 8.98% Black or African American, 0.46% Native American, 0.25% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.45% from other races, and 1.03% from two or more races. 1.80% of the people were Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There were 5,205 households out of which 27.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.90% were married couples living together, 10.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.70% were non-families. 23.90% of all households were made up of people living alone and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.87.
In the county the people were spread out with 22.10% under the age of 18, 7.90% from 18 to 24, 26.60% from 25 to 44, 26.20% from 45 to 64, and 17.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females there were 113.90 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 117.20 males.
The median income for a household in the county was $26,082, and the median income for a family was $31,157. Males had a median income of $26,694 versus $17,863 for females. The per capita income for the county was $13,559. About 14.50% of families and 19.10% of the people were below the poverty line, including 23.90% of those under age 18 and 16.10% of those age 65 or over.
In Presidential elections, Dixie County tends to vote Republican, although both Democrat Bill Clinton and Reform Party candidate Ross Perot did very well in 1992 and 1996.
Gadsden County, Florida
Gadsden County is a county in the panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2000 census, 45,087 people lived there. The U.S. Census Bureau 2005 estimate for the county is 46,428 people. Its county seat is Quincy, Florida. Gadsden County is the only majority African American county in Florida. Gadsden county is home to two high schools - West Gadsden High School (a combination of former Chattahoochee High and Greensboro High) on the western edge of Quincy near Greensboro, and East Gadsden High School (a combination of former James A. Shanks High and Havana Northside High) located on Highway 90 East of Quincy.
The county is part of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Gadsden County was created in 1823. It was named for James Gadsden of South Carolina. He was Andrew Jackson's aide-de-camp in Florida in 1818.