Alan Dixon served as a member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1951 to 1963 and as a member of the Illinois State Senate from 1963 to 1971, serving as Minority Whip for part of that time. In the fall of 1970, Karl Rove, a future White House Deputy Chief of Staff in the George W. Bush Administration, used a false identity to enter Dixon’s campaign office, who was running for Illinois Treasurer, and stole 1000 sheets of paper with campaign letterhead. Rove then printed fake campaign rally fliers promising “free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing”, and distributed them at rock concerts and homeless shelters, with the effect of disrupting Dixon’s rally. Dixon eventually won the election. Rove’s role would not become publicly known until August 1973. Rove told the Dallas Morning News in 1999, “It was a youthful prank at the age of 19 and I regret it.” In 1976, Dixon was elected Illinois Secretary of State. The 1976 Illinois State election was turbulent for the Democratic Party. Outgoing Governor Dan Walker had lost the support of the Party and was defeated in the primary election. Dixon’s election as Secretary of State left two years on his term as State Treasurer. To prevent Walker from appointing himself or anyone else to the position, Dixon proposed to incoming Republican Governor James R. Thompson that he would resign after Thompson was inaugurated if Thompson agreed to Dixon’s choice for State Treasurer. Dixon’s choice was Donald R. Smith, a Republican who was the ranking Civil Service employee in the State Treasurer’s office and who had agreed not to run for re-election. Alan Dixon served as Secretary of State until 1981. when he took office as a United States Senator from Illinois.

Alan Dixon was generally considered a moderate and was less visible nationally than either of his Illinois colleagues, Charles Percy and Paul Simon, both of whom sought the presidency. In 1992, Dixon lost in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate to Carol Moseley Braun. This defeat shocked observers; at the time no Senator had been defeated in a primary in over a decade and Dixon had a long record of electoral success. His vote to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court contributed to his defeat. Dixon was sharply criticized during the campaign by Braun for supporting Clarence Thomas’ nomination despite allegations of Thomas sexually harassing Anita Hill. Braun, a black woman, had the complete support of black voters, and as a known reformist liberal got a large share of liberal voters, and also attracted many women voters in what was termed “The Year of the Woman”. Another factor was the third candidate in the race, multi-millionaire attorney Al Hofeld. Hofeld drew away some of the moderate and conservative Democrats who normally supported Dixon. He also spent a large amount of money running advertisements attacking Dixon, weakening his support. The Chicago Tribune ran a piece in which Eric Zorn claim that Dixon voting to confirm Clarence Thomas in 1991 set off a chain of events that led to Barack Obama’s election as president in 2008. After his term in the Senate, Alan Dixon resumed practicing law with the Bryan Cave law firm in St. Louis and lived in Fairview Heights, Illinois, where he died on July 6, 2014 from natural causes just 1 day shy of his 87th birthday.