Jay Nixon timeline

• February 1986: Jay Nixon, a De Soto, Mo., lawyer files as a candidate for the Missouri Senate from the 22nd District.
• Aug. 5, 1986: Nixon wins a three-way Democratic primary, receiving 49.7 percent of the vote.
• Nov. 4, 1986: Nixon decisively defeats Larry J. Callahan to win the 22nd District Senate seat, taking 64 percent of the vote.
• Oct. 6, 1987: Nixon announces plans to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Jack Danforth in the 1988 elections.
• Nov. 9, 1988: Nixon suffers the worst defeat in modern state history for a major party nominee, receiving just 32 percent of the vote against Danforth.
• November 1990: Nixon wins re-election to the Missouri Senate.
• February 1992: Nixon files to run for attorney general.
• Aug. 4, 1992: Nixon defeats the 1988 Democratic nominee, Mike Wolff, to win his party's nomination for attorney general.
• Nov. 3, 1992: Nixon defeats David Steelman in a bitter contest for attorney general, taking 51 percent of the vote to win the office tainted by the scandals of Republican Bill Webster.
• November 1996: Nixon easily wins re-election, taking 59.4 percent of the vote and receiving the highest vote total of any Democrat on the statewide ballot.
• Aug. 4, 1998: Nixon defeats four minor candidates in the Democratic primary for the nomination to take on U.S. Sen. Kit Bond.
• Nov. 3, 1998: Nixon suffers his second defeat in a U.S. Senate race, taking 43.8 percent of the vote against Bond.
• Nov. 7, 2000: Nixon wins re-election with 60.3 percent of the vote, again taking more votes than any other candidate on the statewide ballot.
• Nov. 2, 2004: Nixon wins his fourth term as attorney general, taking 60 percent of the vote and scoring the highest total vote ever received by a candidate for statewide office.
• Nov. 10, 2005: Nixon organizes a committee to raise funds to run for governor.

n Aug. 5, 2008: Nixon wins the Democratic nomination for governor against token opposition.