Ralph Eugene Reed Jr. (born June 24, 1961) is an American political consultant and lobbyist, best known as the first executive director of the Christian Coalition during the early 1990s. He sought the Republican nomination for the office of Lieutenant Governor of Georgia but lost the primary election on July 18, 2006, to state Senator Casey Cagle. Reed started the Faith and Freedom Coalition in June 2009. Reed and his wife JoAnne Young were married in 1987 and have four children. He is a member of the Council for National Policy. Early life and education Born in Portsmouth, Virginia, to Navy ophthalmologist Ralph Reed and mother Marcy Reed, young Ralph moved often as a child, but spent the majority of his childhood in Miami, Florida. He moved with his family to Toccoa, Georgia, in 1976, earning Eagle Scout at BSA Troop 77 and graduating from Stephens County High School in 1979. He attended the University of Georgia where he earned an AB in history in 1985. Reed served as a columnist and editor of the college newspaper, The Red & Black. In 1983, Reed, then a senior at the University of Georgia, wrote a column for The Red & Black with the headline "Gandhi: Ninny of the Twentieth Century." Shortly after Reed's article ran, another student wrote in and made a compelling case that "every assertion, every quote, and several seemingly original Reed phrases may be found directly or in slightly modified form" in a commentary article by Richard Grenier. Reed was then discharged from his role on the college newspaper for plagiarism. Reed was a member of the Demosthenian Literary Society, the Jasper Dorsey Intercollegiate Debate Society, and College Republicans. He is also an alumnus of the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia, an organization that teaches conservative Americans how to influence public policy through activism and leadership. Reed obtained his PhD in American history from Emory University in 1991. Career Reed spent much of his college career as a political activist, taking six years to earn his undergraduate degree. He started with the University of Georgia College Republicans, steadily rising to state and then national leadership. He was later profiled in Gang of Five by Nina Easton, along with Grover Norquist and other young activists who got their start in that 1980s era. The triumvirate In 1981, Reed moved to Washington, D.C., to intern at the College Republican National