Alvin Greene gained nationwide attention in 2010 after running for the United States Senate in the state of South Carolina. Greene was defeated by incumbent Republican Senator Jim DeMint in the November 2010 elections by more than 30 points.http://www.foxnews.com/interactive/politics/candidate-list/#state=SC

To make it to the election competition against Jim DeMint, Greene defeated Vic Rawl, a former judge and South Carolina prosecutor, in the Democratic runoff in June 2010 by a rather large margin, acquiring 59 percent of the votes.http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/alvin_greene/ Greene reportedly had no campaign funds and used no political signs or marketing material to advance himself in the election other than the $10,000 he put up to pay the campaign filing fee. Greene's victory came as a bit of surprise to much of the country, since Greene has no formal training in politics. At the time Greene joined the campaign, he had been unemployed for nine months after leaving the United States Army. According to his own statements, Greene served in both the Army and the United States Air Force for 13 years.

Following the runoff election, Democratic party leaders in the state announced that Greene was facing felony obscenity charges in the state involving an incident where he allegedly showed pornographic material to an 18 year old college student using his computer. In addition, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and many other organizations called for a statewide investigation into Greene and the results of the primary election. Vic Rawl reportedly asked for assistance from a few mathematicians and state college professors in order to determine whether or not there was fraud committed or state election boxes were tampered with.http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/06/16/4517878-sc-dems-to-hold-hearing-on-greene-tomorrow

Alvin Greene was born in Florence, South Carolina in 1977. He attended Manning Public Schools and graduated from high school in 1997. Following high school, Greene went on to study political science at the University of South Carolina, graduating with a Bachelor's degree in 2000.http://www.alvinmgreene.com/?page_id=2 While attending college, Greene served in the Army National Guard and also served in the Air Force at some point in time.http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/alvin-greene-south-carolina

After his college education, Greene enlisted in the US Army, where he reportedly served as both an intelligence officer and a supply specialist. After serving in the military for 13 years, Greene received an involuntary honorable discharge in 2009.

There has been a lot of speculation about how Alvin Greene came to win the South Carolina Democratic primary. Following the win, a number of organizations launched a statewide investigation into Greene and the election itself. One of the questions being looked into is how Greene was able to come up with the $10,000 for the campaign filing fee when he had no campaign funds for anything else. Greene alleges that this money came from his personal account and that it was upfront money from his military severance pay.

Another aspect of the election that is being looked at is whether there was tampering at the polls or some other electronic method used to alter the results of the election. Greene obtained 59 percent of the votes, which seems like a mathematical impossibility to some. A university professor who has examined the numbers noted that the chances of this happening only happens about ten percent of the time. However, he also points out that the reason that numbers may seem so skewed in this election could have more to do with the additional number of voters turning up to vote in other districts. http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/06/alvin-greene-south-carolina