Dave Spence

Dave Spence (born February 28, 1958) is an American corporate executive and politician. He was the Republican nominee for governor of Missouri in the 2012 election, losing the general election to incumbent Democrat Jay Nixon.

Early life and career Spence was born in Overland in St. Louis County, Missouri. He spent much of his childhood in the St. Louis area with his mother and two sisters. Following graduation from Kirkwood High School,

Spence earned a degree in Home Economics from the University of Missouri in Columbia.

In 1985, the 26-year-old Spence purchased Alpha Packaging, a small plastics firm. Under his ownership it expanded from 15 to 800 employees. Spence has a family background in the plastics industry. His father had started a rubber and plastics business, for which Spence worked as a teen. However, the business failed in the early 1980s.

Spence has also served as chairman of Legacy Pharmaceutical Packaging. Kinder decided to run for reelection as lieutenant governor, and endorsed Spence for governor. Regarding the errors, Spence told the Associated Press, "I have said all along that I will not or do not lie ... A lot of this is overblown, as I was not aware of any place that said business school ... I will take responsibility for this. I did not catch the mistake on early campaign literature." Spence's campaign manager cited a staff oversight for the error.

On August 7, 2012, Spence won the Republican nomination for Missouri governor. He received 333,578 votes (59.9 percent) to outpace nearest challenger Bill Randles' 90,651 (16.3 percent). Spence was defeated by incumbent Democrat Jay Nixon in the November 2012 general election.

In his contest against Nixon, Spence had the support of Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum political action committee.