Allen Dickerson elected Chairman, Steven T. Walther elected Vice Chair for 2022

WASHINGTON—At its open meeting today, the Federal Election Commission elected Allen Dickerson as Chairman and Steven T. Walther as Vice Chair for 2022.

Commissioner Dickerson joined the Commission following his confirmation by the United States Senate on December 9, 2020. He served as Vice Chair in 2021.

Commissioner Dickerson was Legal Director of the Institute for Free Speech, where he led a nationwide First Amendment litigation practice, from 2011 to 2020. Previously, he was an Associate with Kirkland & Ellis LLP and advised the Republican Governors Association. Commissioner Dickerson, who also serves as a Judge Advocate in the United States Army Reserve, is a graduate of Yale College and New York University School of Law.

Commissioner Walther was first sworn in as a Commissioner on January 10, 2006, as a recess appointee, and was confirmed by the Senate on June 24, 2008. He served as Vice Chair for the balance of 2008 and again in the second half of 2020 and as Chair in 2009 and 2017.

Commissioner Walther is a former president of the State Bar of Nevada, the Western States Bar Conference, and the National Caucus of State Bar Associations, and chaired the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation. He has been active in initiatives focusing on international relations, human rights and the rule of law, and was the first chair of the ABA Center for Human Rights. From 1971 until his FEC appointment, Commissioner Walther served as a member of the Nevada State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

In 1972, Commissioner Walther co-founded the Reno, Nevada law firm of Walther & Key, where he practiced law with an emphasis on litigation and continued as a senior partner until his appointment to the Commission. Commissioner Walther received his undergraduate degree, with a major in Russian, from the University of Notre Dame in 1965 and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1968.