Researching Mark White

White was elected governor in the 1982 gubernatorial election, defeating the incumbent Bill Clements. A member of the Democratic Party, White sought to improve education, transportation, water resources, law enforcement, and taxes to lure new industry to Texas. He appointed the first Hispanic woman to serve as judge of a district court in Texas. In the 1986 gubernatorial election, White lost to former Republican Governor Clements, 52.7% to 46.0%.

White was formerly second vice-chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party. He was the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in Tennessee's 9th congressional district in the 2006 election. White's opponents in the general election were Democrat Steve Cohen and independent Jake Ford. It was White's first bid for elected office.

Many pundits believed that White faced nearly impossible odds in November. The 9th is a heavily Democratic, majority-African-American district which has been in Democratic hands since 1975; the Republicans have not made a truly serious bid for the seat since 1978. In addition, the 9th's incumbent congressman, Harold Ford, Jr., was running for the Senate, and popular Governor Phil Bredesen was running for a second term. For much of the campaign, it seemed the real race was between Cohen and Ford. However, the 9th is so heavily Democratic that White would have faced very long odds even in a two-man race against Cohen.

Despite being the highest-profile Republican to run in the 9th in almost 30 years, White was badly outspent, raising just over $227,000. In November, White placed third with 18 percent of the vote, well behind Cohen (60 percent) and Ford (22 percent). This was by far the worst showing for a Republican in the district since the 1950s.

He supported Rick Perry for Republican primary of the 2012 presidential election.

Born in Sheffield, England, White first entered the music industry in the late 1970s as lead singer and keyboardist of the electronic band Vice Versa. After releasing one album with the band in 1980, Vice Versa member Martin Fry emerged as lead singer and the band opted to transform into a new band called ABC. White resigned himself to composing ABC's music while also playing guitar and keyboards before retiring from music after the release of their sixth studio album, Abracadabra, in 1991. As ABC's keyboardist he used a variety of instruments, including the E-mu Emulator, the Yamaha DX7 and the Fairlight CMI.

In 2014, White came out of retirement to reform Vice Versa with Stephen Singleton.