Ronald Cordell Sims (born July 5, 1948) is the former Deputy Secretary of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, having served in the position from May 8, 2009 to July 2011. He is also the former King County Executive. Sims ran unsuccessfully for higher office twice: United States Senator in 1994 and for Governor of Washington in 2004. Early life Sims was born in Spokane, Washington, to Reverend James C. Sims Sr. and Lydia T. Sims. He graduated from Lewis and Clark High School and attended Central Washington University in Ellensburg, where he earned a B.A. in psychology. Between graduation and his election to the King County Council he worked in the office of the Washington State Attorney General, for the Federal Trade Commission, for the juvenile offenders program of the city of Seattle, and as an aide in the state senate. He is an ordained Baptist minister. Political career In 1985, Sims was elected to the King County Council, being reelected in 1989 and 1993. During his first term, he and fellow Councilman Bruce Laing led a campaign that saw the county rededicate its name, in 1986, to honor Martin Luther King Jr., rather than original namesake and slaveowner William R. King, who had been elected as Vice President of the United States just prior to the 1852 creation of the county. (The namesake change was legally enshrined by Washington state in 2005.) In 1994, he was defeated by Republican incumbent Slade Gorton in an election for the United States Senate. In 1996, he was appointed King County Executive after the previous holder of the office, Gary Locke, was elected governor of Washington. He was re-elected in 1997, 2001 and 2005. On July 29, 2003, he announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for Washington state governor in the 2004 elections. Sims made news in the campaign when he proposed replacing the state sales tax and business and occupation tax with a progressively graduated income tax. In the primary election held on September 14, 2004, Sims lost to state Attorney General Christine Gregoire. On February 2, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Sims to become Deputy Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, being confirmed by the United States Senate on May 6, 2009 and sworn in on May 8, 2009 On June 14, 2011, less than two years after accepting his HUD